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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



Copyright 1902 by Charles Hovey Brown. 



All rights reserved. 



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TMf? LiBRAf^Y OF 
CONORESS, 

NOV. \\ \mi 

CLASfi^*XXe No. 
COPY S. 



^faE 'aOR'H'AM' PRESS, BOSTON. 



V 



1^^ 



PERSONS OF THE DRAMA 

MOSES 

AARON, brother of Moses 

JOSHUA 

RAMESES, king of Egypt 

MENBPHTHAH, afterv/ard king of Egypt 

SETI, a priest 

PENTAUR, a poet, friend of Moses 

MIRIAM, sister of Moses 

JOCHEBED, mother of Moses 

PRINCESS, foster mother of Moses 

ZIPPORAH, wife of Moses 

CHORUS OF YOUTHS 

CHORUS OF MAIDENS 

SHEPHERDS 

HERALD 

TWO LORDS 

Lords, courtiers and others 



ACT FIRST. 

Court of the Temple of Karnac at Thebes. 

SCENE FIRST .—SET! and TWO LORDS. 

FIRST LORD: The days of Rameses draw to their close. 
And who shall follow him upon the throne 
Becomes the question of most moment, — that 
Which most concerns the state. Of all his sons, 
Or all the scions of the royal stock, 
Which is most worthy, which most capable, 
To wield the sceptre he so gloriously 
Has held for Egypt's honor, now becomes 
The problem we must solve; which as we solve 
Determines for the years to come the weal 
Or woe of Egypt. Say, most noble priest, 
Who'st had the training of the princely boys. 
In which of all the royal neophytes. 
Shows most the spirit of the radiant God 
Whom we adore, the light and strength of Egypt? 
SETI: 'Tis well you ask that question; for the king 
Of Egypt should be he who most reveals 
The spirit of the God; above all he 
Who has displayed the mind most teachable. 
SECOND LORD: Perhaps you'd have a priest upon the throne? 
SETI: Priests have not made the worst of rulers. 
SECOND LORD: Aye, 

When splendid quiet is the state's chief aim. 
SETI: Can any ruler grant a better boon 

Than peace, so it be not inglorious? 
FIRST LORD: Has any ruler done for Egypt more 
Than Rameses, in whose long reign no year 
Has been unmarked by battles, that have brought 
Fame to the arms of Egypt, and renown 
Throughout the earth, such as no previous king 
But Thothmes has achieved? 
SETI: Doubtless the fame 

Of Egypt never was more widely spread; 
But war has not been under Rameses 
The grand ebullience of the people's strength. 
As under the great Thothmes; but the forced 
Expression of a feverish vigor, that 
Has brought exhaustion in its train, and ills 
We shall be long recovering from. No state 
Can spend its strength forever in vast wars 
Of conquest, more than without sleep a man 
Can labor with impunity to heap 
Up hoards of treasure. Madness must result 
Both to the individual and the state 
From such immoderate ambition. 



SECOND LORD: Aye, 

You priests have always been indilterent 
To Egypt's glory, and would give us now 
A king of prayers and auspices, who with 
Weak piety would let you rule the state. 
But rule you shall not, if I have a voice 
To seat a warrior upon the throne, 
Who shall extend beyond the utmost bounds 
Reached by the empire of great Rameses 
The limits of our sway. 

SETI: If we oppose 

The warlike policy so long pursued, 
'Tis not because we lag one step behind 
The proudest nobles in our dear regard 
For Egypt's greatness; but because we feel 
It is the spendhrift's blindness to send out 
Year after year fresh armies, to contend 
With barbarous powers, that breed new multitudes 
To conquer us at last, by wearing out 
Our strength although it triumph for the nonce. 
And what the gain accrues to Egypt from 
Her conquests? Can we boast they bring us good, 
Beyond the glory of subduing lands 
We cannot hold? A questionable good, 
For which we sacrifice our manhood! Nay, 
It is not Egypt that reaps gain from such 
Vain glory; but the nobles who can glut 
Thereby their lust for gold, which they procure. 
As much as from the foes' that they subdue, 
From our own poor, whom Egypt's ruin makes 
Their bondmen. 

FIRST LORD: Well we understand your drift. 

Although of noble blood, you are at heart 
One of those Israelites, whom Rameses 
Has deemed in his good wisdom only fit 
To do that servile work which must be done 
In every state, leaving the nobler free 
To follow in the path where glory leads. 

SETI: The priests of Egypt are no alien stock. 
Who feel no thrill responsive at the thought 
Of Egypt's glory; but her loyal sons, 
Whose hearts throb with the warm flow of her life 
When she is honored, but experience, 
If she have met defeat, the fatal chill 
Which makes their blood run sluggishly. They pray 
As you for Egypt's greatness; but they deem 
Her greatness will be furthered less by arms 
Than by the liberal arts of laurelled peace; 
Therefore they would have on the throne a king 
Whose name should be to every artisan 
An earnest of protection, and to those 
Whom genius has decreed to build their thought 
In sculptured granite or the living word 
An inspiration. 

SECOND LORD: Aye, for arms exchange 

The scholar's mace, and let the court be made 
A school for tradesmen, artisans and scribes, 
For whose dear sake, that they may exercise 



Their arts unhindered, peace must be maintained 
Inviolable, although honor succumb. 
And all go topsy-turvy! 

SETI: Honor, no! 

But Egypt's honor is not lost or won 
Upon the field of battle merely. In 
The hearts of all her citizens it dwells, 
Inviolable while they are prosperous 
And happy; but defamed when in the state 
Division creeps, nurtured in that rank air 
Which rises like a deadly miasm 
Above the state, when ends that bring the gain 
Of glory to a faction are pursued, 
For which the multitude must suffer. 

SECOND LORD: Faction! 

Who calls the hydra-headed faction forth 
But you who urge the many to revolt? 

SETI: 'Tis ye who wake the embers of revolt; 
Not we, who would recall you ere too late; 
Back to the path of honor that for goal 
Sets the whole people's welfare, not the good 
Of warrior nobles merely. We would take 
The bandage from your eyes, that you may see 
The chasm opening wider in the state. 
Which if it be not closed ere long must lead 
To civil warfare. 

SECOND LORD: Well, we are content 

To cast the die whatever be the issue. 
Nor is it our concern to vex ourselves 
For others' welfare. But pray tell us who. 
In your good judgment should ascend the throne 
Of Rameses. 

SETI: Were merit to decide. 

There could not be a choice of candidates. 
Nor do I need to name him to your ears: 
For his clear fame resounds throughout the land. 
In arms not impotent, but most renowned 
For wisdom, wherein he has not a peer 
For one so young. 

FIRST LORD: You are not scant of praise. 

Assuredly. 

SETI: He merits it. 

SECOND LORD: No doubt. 

When priestly Interests concern the judge. 

SETI: Believe me, it is not the priest who speaks. 
But patriot, when I say, of all whose name 
And qualities entitle to pretend 
To Egypt's crown and sceptre, there is none 
Who can compare with Moses; none as he 
Who has of all the learning of his time 
So great command, or who such earnest gives 
Of genius to control our destiny. 

FIRST LORD: And is he only fit to rule the state? 

SETI: What if our destiny were in his hand! 

SECOND LORD: To thrust him by would conquer destiny. 

SETI: Nay, but defy it to our infinite loss. 
But it Is useless that we bandy more 
Words that seem not to bring us to accord. 

7 



Nor does time serve me for the task. Farewell! 
I must hence to my priestly offices. 

(Seti goes out.) 

SCENE SECON D.— The TWO LORDS. 

FIRST LORD: 'Tis as I thought. The priests are going to force 

Upon King Rameses the choice of Moses 

As his successor. They expect to find 

In him, an adept in all their mysteries, 

One to advance their interests; and sooth 

To say, they have not chosen their candidate 

Unwisely if ability decide; 

For Moses is not one to be despised. 

Or lightly to be thought of. Even now 

He is a match in learning with the best, 

Reaching as if by instinct that clear grasp 

Of principles, which strongest minds attain 

Only through years of study. Nor is he 

In active exercise a weakling, either. 

I doubt not with distinction he could lead 

An army; but I doubt he were inclined 

To follow in the course of Rameses, 

That has accrued so largely tO' our gain 

And glory. 
SECOND LORD: Mine your doubt is. I as you 

Surmise that Moses would be on the throne 

The priest, who most would favor in his choice 

Of servants priests and scribes, setting aside 

The warrior class to wither with inaction. 

Nor is it of good augury to us, 

That he has openly shown sympathy 

With bondmen, who are set .jy Rameses 

To bulla us granaries and arsenals. 

That his successors on a larger scale 

May carry out his warlike policy. 

It looks as Moses disapproves, and would, 

if opportunity should offer, set 

At naught this policy; if not that slaves 

And aliens shall be called to govern us. 
FIRST LORD: Alas, for Egypt shoula it come to pass 

Tnat our traaitions all be set aside 

For upstart greatness! 
SECOND LORD: Never shall it be. 

This Moses must be made to Rameses 

Obnoxious, that choice may not light on him. 

But yet his mother, Pharaoh s daughter — rather 

She who is his mother by repute; 

But who, if whispered rumor speak the truth. 

Adopted him, a foundling, who no claim 

Has but her pity to the royal name — 

Will doubtless push her influence to the extreme 

To have him after Rameses supreme. 

Nor is there any who now holds so great 

An influence as she within the state: 

For to her interests the enfeebled mind 

Of Rameses she has known how to bind, 

That he will carry out the policy 

8 



That in her wisdom seems the best to be. 
But I misjudge her greatly, if the tool 
She be not of the priests, who through her rule. 
She is the hand, but they the guiding arm 
That will not hesitate to work us harm. 

FIRST LORD: What say you! Moses is but by repute 
The son of Pharaoh's daughter? That a waif 
He was, saved by her pity from the death 
To which he was abandoned? 

SECOND LORD: So it seems. 

FIRST LORD: But why if such a rumor were abroad 
Is it not more exploited? Peradventure 
His features, rather of the Hebrew cast 
Than the Egyptian, though as far removed. 
In their refinement from the brutishness 
Of their's who labor in our brickyards, as 
Intelligence from coarseness, has given rise 
To such a rumor. 

SECOND LORD: Ay, but whence those features? 
Friend, I know it for a certain fact. 
That Moses is of Hebrew parentage, 
Whom Pharaoh's daughter saved from frowning death, 
And would have all believe her son, howe'er 
His countenance, belying the imposture, 
Unmask suspicions that cannot be voiced. 

FIRST LORD: But whence know you this fact? 

SECOND LORD: Listen and I 

Will tell you. 

FIRST LORD: All intent am I to hear. 

SECOND LORD. 'Tis now some one and twenty years ago, 
A little more or less, when the decree 
Went forth, that every son of Hebrew sire 
Born henceforth should not be allowed to live. 
That so should that exuberance be stopped 
Which threatened to o'erpopulate the land 
With slaves of alien parentage — went forth. 
But only to be carried out in part; 
For many were the ruses found tO' evade 
The provisions: fraud, connivance of the law's 
Executors, and pity which revolts 
From heartless policy. So it resulted 
That but a few were slain, and policy 
Was baffled. Of those saved was Moses — saved 
By woman's pity, which obliterates. 
In presence of a baby's helplessness. 
Earthly distinctions, making of one kin 
Princess and slave. His mother, knowing this, 
When every other means had failed to save 
Her baby, wise in her imprudence, laid 
Upon tne river's brink, where Pharaoh's daughter 
Came with the maidens of her train to bathe. 
The princess saw, and pitying, as her own 
Brought up the foundling, who, revealing since 
Earnest of greatness, she woula have him king, 
In her reputed offspring to become 
Egypt's most noted woman. 

FIRST LORD: Know you this 

For certainty? 



SECOND LORD: I will be sworn 'tis true. 
FIRST LORD: It is a lever of tremendous force. 
SECOND LORD; Ay, that it is. 

FIRST LORD: How happens it that you 

Have hit upon so choice a bit of news, 

Which rumor argus-eyed has overlooked? 
SECOND LORD: Conditions at the time made secrecy 

Imperative. Wherefore the princess bade 

Her maidens, with the fear of her aispleasure. 

Never to broach a word of what they'd seen. 
FIRST LORD: And one has broken her mandate, it appears. 
SECOND LORD: Yes, recently, and to my willing ears. 
FIRS'i" LORD: What was the spell allured it from her heart? 
SECOND LORD: You'd ask not if you knew the sorcerer's art. 
FIRST LORD: Methinks I have an inkling of your power. 

A moonlight night, and in a spicy bower 

Two hearts alone that in sweet unison beat. 

And lips that all their hidden thought repeat. 
SECOND LORD: You, too, are in the secret and have bought 

The favor of some beauty of the court. 
FIRST LORD: Tut, tut, such matter ought not to be spoken of. 

We blazon not abroad the victories of love. 
SECOND LORD: Well, as you will; nor could we for the tim-e say 
more; 

For I have heard a step along the corridor. 
FIRST LORD: Methinks I ought to know that step; 'tis Meneph- 

thath. 
SECOND LORD: His heavy tread betrays the haughty lord of war. 

SCENE THREE.— SAME, with MENEPHTHAH. 

MENEPHTHAH: Welcome, most noble lords and friends, whom I 
have sought 
For counsel in the crisis now in our affairs, 
When one misstep may ruin all our cherished plans, 
And seat the priestly aspirant upon the throne. 

FIRST LORD: Such as it is, our counsel we are fain to give; 
But what is more of moment, we will give the support 
Of our good arms and properties to advance your cause. 
That you, the rightful aspirant to Egypt's throne, 
And him of all most worthy, may become her king. 

SECOND LORD: Ay, we will stickle not at any means, that you 
In your good wisdom deem expedient to use 
To advance your interests. We will not hesitate. 
If need be, to embroil the land in civil war. 
That after Rameses we still may have a king, 
And not be forced to bow to women and to priests, 
Who would lay Egypt's honor prostrate to a slave. 

MENEPHTHAH: I thank you, worthy friends. Not less did I ex- 
pect 
From your proved loyalty. But I sincerely trust 
That we may not be driven to the last extreme 
Of civil warfare. I would rather place the crown 
Upon my head not steeped with fraticidal blood 
Than take it with the sword. Yet they who would, withhold 
Shall find I am no weakling, who will tamely yield 
To be stripped of my rights ; but if worse come to worst, 
I will not hesitate to drench the land in gore, 

10 



So I may have my own, and on their heads who drive 
To such extremity, not mine, shall rest the guilt. 
FIRST LORD: We heartily concur in all that you have said. 
The imprint of the gory hand upon the crown 
Must dim its lustre; yet, though dimmed, it is a prize 
Not to be cast aside, because the priests have bidden. 
And their adherents who extol weak righteousness 
Denounce the ambitious aspirant, though legal right 
And custom justify to the uttermost his claim. 
SECOND LORD: O, fie upon their boastea righteousness! I hate 
The hypocrisy that hides beneath this mask a heart 
As full of vague ambitious yearnings as the worst 
That cloaks its projects but Irom policy; but blasted 
With impotency that seeks to masquerade as virtue. 
I dare avouch no saint has ever shown himself 
So virtuous that, if a moment were relaxed 
The tension on the bit of weakness that restrains 
His cravings, he would prove in the pursuit of his 
Ambitious aims the peer of any who through seas 
Of blooa have waded to a throne. Without suspicion 
The weak cannot make show of virtue. Only strength 
Is capable thereof, and will be given credence 
For loyalty unfeigned. I do not hesitate 
To avow for my part alienation from the priests 
And all they stand for. To defeat their ends I would 
Not shrink from any means my judgment may approve, 
Upon the ground that they are reprehensible. 
And so I say again, my heart and hand are yours 
For any policy that may command success. 
MENEPHTHAH: Good friends, you shall not rue devotion to my 
cause. 
If I am able to reward your faithfulness. 
If I succeed you shall be honored; if I fail. 
My friends perforce fail with me. I can do no more 
Than to assure my helpers that indissolubly 
With mine are joined their fortunes; that with me they rise 
To glory or decline into obscurity. 
But most shall share my happier fortune, if it come. 
They who in my eclipse most link their lot to mine. 
But now enough of compliments and promises. 
Let's to tne point. What know you of the priests' designs? 
FIRST LORD: They would unquestionably seat Moses on the throna 
SECOND LORD: They wish no warrior king, but one of slaves and 

scribes. 
FIRST LORD: Egypt's exchequer they lament will bear no more 

The constant drain of armies and muniments of war. 
SECOND LORD: It is their plea to lower the nobles who would 
pluck 
The laurel wreaths of victory which they begrudge. 
FIRST LORD: They crave that rest from strenuous effort that may 
give 
Time to collect resources to adorn and build 
New temples more imposing than any we have built. 
SECOND LORD: Not that, my brother; that's the plea which they 
prefer 
Of interest, as befits them, for the Gods; but their 
Chief interest is to abase the warrior caste. 
But this time they have hit, my liege, upon a snag, 

II 



Which either has escaped their vigilance, or else 
If they're aware of it they deem it policy 
To hide the knowledge, which they think they only have, 
So hoping to delude the many; but perchance 
Their policy may founder on that very snag. 
Perhaps you know already, though I scarcely think so, 
That he the priests would seat upon the lofty throne 
Of Egypt is no scion of the Egyptian stock; 
But one of alien blood and servile parentage. 
Whom fortune as in irony has reared a prince. 
As if to mock prescription and to cast a slur 
Upon the noble blood of kings, by thrusting forth 
The foundling of a slave to sieze the crown and sceptre. 
MENEPTHAH: What say you? Moses no scion of the royal stock! 
Of alien parentage! The foundling of a slave! 
A dainty morsel of sweet news if this be true! 
SECOND LORD: It is, my liege, as I am here. But if it were not- 
Well, what's that to you? If people have been taught 
To think so and this serve the ends of policy. 
Why not make use of what is given you, asking not 
Of Rumor sureties? If in deceiving you 
She further your ambitions, that's not your affair. 
You've simply taken facts as you have found, and used 
For your advantage, which all do as they are able. 
If scrupulous to ask of every fact its sponsors. 
Lest it deceive you, you will vex yourself all to 
No purpose, and will lose your opportunity. 
MENEPHTHAH: But tell me more at length, if this be not of your 
Invention, as I am inclined to think it is, 
(You'll surely pardon me if I have done you wrong) 

How came you to have learned what Gossip has o'erlooked? 
SECOND LORD: Tne story's long, but you shall hear it and can 
make 

What use thereof may please you. 
FIRST LORD: Whist! I hear a step. 

MENEPHTHAH: If I mistake not it is Moses. Well, I know 

That measured step and slow, of one who does not act 

Till firm conviction have made clear the way ahead. 

Which cannot be avoided. We must set aside 

Consideration of the matter I wouid hear 

Until occasion serve, with no intruder near. 

SCENE FOURTH.— THE SAME, with MOSES. 

MENEPHTHAH: Welcome, most worthy prince, whose praise is on 
all lips. 
What brings you to the court, which you have not been wont 
To frequent much of late, being preoccupied 
With searchings into hidden things and ponderlngs deep. 
Within the dreamy halls and shady aisles of On, 
Where learning and pale meditation have their seat 
Established since the earliest days of Egypt's greatness? 

FIRST LORD: We do thee homage, prince, upon whose noble brow, 
Where felon time has not yet stolen the graces youth 
Endowed thee with, hoar wisdom has the laurel crown 
Implanted, honoring ripeness far beyond thy years. 

SECOND LORD: We lip the praises thy young glory in the walks 
Of studious peace, prince, has extorted from the hearts 
Of Egypt's millions. 

12 



MOSES: Friends, I thank you for your words 

Of welcome, which I would that I might truly m,erit. 
Meseems, however, wisdom is not much to boast of. 
That shows one only life's insoluble mystery. 
I have learned nothing but tnat all this gallant world 
Is a mere snow, as insubstantial as the cloud 
That blots the Diue ^ace of the heavens and vanishes; 
But what the cause of all I have not learned, nor what 
The meaning of my own existence in this world 
Of shadows. 

MENEPHTHAH: Others equals not of you in wisdom. 
Or in tne fame thereof at least, find no such trouble. 

MOSES: Perhaps they're wiser; or, if not wiser, at least can act 
Unvexed by questions of their origin and end. 
As I cannot. Do what I will, the question ere 
Intrudes itself upon my 'thought. Who art thou, Moses? 
What is the object of thy life? To eac and drink 
And to be merry, or to make tiiy powers subserve 
Some worthier purpose? With as much insistency 
The question presses for solution. Why hast thou 
Been reared a prince, while millions who deserve no less 
Are doomed to wear away their days in drudgery 
Which brings no gain but bare subsistence? 

MENEPHTHAH: Pooh! I do 

Not vex myself over the state of others. That 
Is their affair, not mine. Mine is to serve myself. 
Which if I do not, none will do it for me. Prince, 
Methinks it ill comports with your high dignity 
To think of slaves as if your brothers, having rights 
Inalienable as yours. 

MOSES: Perchance I were not more 

Unselfish than were others; but the mystery 
Is that such thoughts rise up unbidden and extrude 
Thoughts I would rather harbor. With such urgency 
These force themselves on my attention, that at times 
I walk in my accustomed offices as one 
•Asleep, my mind abstracted from the things I do; 
And more, a strange attraction draws me forth of late, 
To find a solacg, which I can no longer find 
In books, amongst the servile many at their tasks. 
Beholding whom, as if an arrow pierced my heart, 
A sudden thrill of pity rises up unbidden. 
Such as betokens kinship when a brother meets, 
After long years of separation, one whose face 
Time has so altered that he does not recognize. 

SECOND LORD: That were not strange if facts should prove you 
were their brother. 

MOSES: Why not? Beyond the ties of blood relationship. 
Does custom institute a kinship, making those 
Our brothers merely who are rearea to. like estate 
Of privilege or culture, while the millions more. 
Like us in feature and with sympathies the same, 
Are aliens we're to have no fellow-feeling for, 
But may as tools to advance our purposes employ 
Without compunction, or as stepping stones to glory. 

MENEPHTHAH: You would make war on social privilege and 
rank. 
Without which there could be no state. 

13 



MOSES: Not in the least. 

I see the need for difference in outward state 
Too clearly, and appreciate the privileges 
I have enjoyed too highly, to make war on them. 
And yet this problem — this sphynx-ridale — everywhere 
Confronting, presses for solution, of the millions 
Sacrificed for our advantage. Why are we 
Thus favored, while to them life bears so stern an aspect? 

MENBPHTHAH: The question is an inconvenient one. I see 
No good in raising this hobgoblin of our right 
To our immunities. They're ours, and that's enough; 
And let who will challenge our right to their possesafton. 
Prince, x tell you for a truth, if we raise not 
The spectre none will have the temerity to do it. 

MOSES: Nay, nay, I raise no spectres;- but cannot avoid 
Beholding when I use my eyes, as you could not. 
Were you not rendered blind by stolid prejudce. 

SECOND LORD: Prince, do you cail us blind? 

MOSES: I can but call it blindness, 

To force advantage to the extreme point of driving 
Millions to such a state that death were" preferable. 
As one who, playing with a tiger, unaware 
Of his wild strength, should rouse his native savagery, 
So they run risk of doing who play a dangerous game 
vvitn men, within whose bosoms lies potentiany 
More than the tiger's fierceness. Friends, you do not hear. 
Because you close your ears, the growing mutterings 
Of discontent like distant thunder, premonition 
Of the approaching storm. 

FIRST LORD: But never do such storms, 

Howe'er portentous hang the clouds above us, break 
Until the leader come to guide the multitude. 

SECOND LORD: Perhaps the leader is at hand, or he who would be. 

MOSES: I understand your meaning. You imply that I 
Would lead the many in revolt against the power 
Of Egypt. Never have I harbored such a thought. 
But I would lead the people for the good of Egypt. 
I would inaugurate a policy, if able. 
That should call forth to their fruition all the powers 
Of every man, that each might give his best to Egypt. 
For such a purpose truly I do crave the throne; 
But merely to pursue the present policy 
Of aimless conquest and oppression I do not. 

MENEPHTHAH: The sovereignty that you desire were tame to me. 
'Tis power I crave, for no ulterior end; but power 
For the delight of using — power that makes who wields 
A god, the terror and the envy of mankind. 
The might of Egypt's millions I would sway, that borne 
Upon this living chariot I may ride rough-shod 
Over the prostrate bodies of an adoring race. 

FIRST LORD: That is a thought to fire the coldest fancy. 

SECOND LORD: Aye, 

'Tis better than a sentimental policy. 
For my part I can stomach nothing of that creed 
Would have the strong for weakness but the dance to lead. 

MOSES: Alas, when Egypt's rulers are of such a mind! 

MENEPHTHAH: Alas, when Egypt do not sturdy rulers find! 

14 



MOSES: Alas, when man for nothing but vainglory cares! 
FIRST LORD: Alas, if we must all betake ourselves to prayers! 
MOSES: Alas, when Pride and Hunger to war rush on apace! 
SECOND LORD: Alas, when men for weakness would the strong 

abase! 
MOSES: I say as you, and have no wish but to increase 

Great Egypt's glory; but meseems this will be done 

■Most fully by that policy that will release 

The powers now suppressed or dormant in each one. 
MENEPHTHAH: Seek service of the slave and honor of the lord. 

Lay on the one the utmost task that he can do ; 

And for the other find the sphere that will afford 

The opportunity his penchant to pursue. 

Such are my sentiments, and such of Rameses, 

Whose long and glorious reign is drawing to its close. 

Farewell! I leave you with your flattering dreams to please 

Your fancy while I play a game to win or lose. 
MOSES: Farewell! I covet not the honor which you seek. 

I crave not sway o'er men and all that wealth can give. 

Questions press on my heart of which I cannot speak. 

I shrink life's tumult, knowing not for what I live. 

(Mienephthah and lords go out.) 

S C E N E F I V E.— M OSES alone. 

MOSES: Go with your vain ambitions! I have no desire 
To wear the crown of Rameses; nor is it likely 
That I shall wear it, though the priests would thrust me forward ; 
For I perceive too clearly what conflicting forces 
Are now at strife within the state, that he who reigns 
Must stand alone, or must resolve to sacrifice 
The many's interests to the few, which I cannot. 
And yet there was a time — and that not long ago — 
When to have reigned I would have left no stone unturned; 
And i am confident I could have won o'er all 
My rivals, and have ruled the land not without honor. 
But now — those days seem more a dream than days I've lived 

i In sober earnest — I am changed — and what a change! 
This dazzling pageantry of life, that so allured 
Erewhile, I've come to look upon as all a show, 
That charms not with its hollow splendor, while the question 
More urgently each moment presses on my thought, 
Who am I and for what am in the world? Nor till 
This question has been answered can I bring myself 
With singleness of purpose to exert my powers. 
And I am restless — often am impelled to flee 
From these associations that are irksome to me. 
And yet I stay, though knowing well that I am doomed 
To littleness, not being able to forget 
Myself in action, wherefore all the ends of life 
Elude me; knowing also that to win the goal, 
Which I might win could I put forth all my best powers. 
Were to be recreant to the call of destiny. 
But hark! The good priest, Seti, who has been to me 
A father, comes. Ah, if I could but lay my heart 
All bare before him, and in his wise words could flnd 
Balm for my spirit's wounds ! But no, it cannot be. 

15 



My sorrows are not of the sort that he can heal; 
Nor do I find help in the Gods he worships, whom 
I have implored — no one more earnestly than I— 
But all in vain, to teach me life's deep mystery. 

SCENE SIX.— MOSES and SET I. 

MOSES: Good father, you are ever welcome. I remember 
That unto you as to no other I owe all 
That wisdom of the ancients, which your patient care 
Has helped to make me master of. 

SETI: Not less, my pupil, 

To see you pleases me, who the most tractable 
To the stern discipline of study I have found 
Of any who have walked with meditative brow 
Those aisles for centuries devoted to the cause 
Of learning. 

MOSES: I have found, good father, joy therein. 
Ah! How my spirit has been thrilled — to ecstasy 
Been thrilled — oft by the noble thoughts of ancient sages. 
Which I have pondered under thy instructive guidance! 
I have been stirred to emulation when I've read 
The deeds of men who have made Egypt great. 

SETI : Moses, 

I know it, and have felt that on you has descended 
The mantle of their greatness. You are one in whom 
The spirit of the great men who have lived and wrought 
For Egypt's glory lives, enshrined within a temple 
Not its unworthy awelling place. With such a spirit 
You have a form which images to every eye 
The majesty of Egypt's most exalted heroes. 
Instinctively who sees you pass proclaims you king. 
Though bearing yet no title; for in you has God 
Created kingliness, that crown and sceptre could 
Not make more kingly, nor the lack thereof obscure. 

MOSES: I am what God has made me; but 

SETI: But what, my son? 

MOSES: Not to be Egypt's king. 

SETI: She cannot find a nobler. 

MOSES: Father, I know not what fate have in store for me; 
But this I feel, that some deep mystery hangs o'er 
My life; a mystery ere long to be revealed. 
Upon which hangs my future and the fate of Egypt. 

SETI: I do not doubt it, and what more momentously 
Can touch your future and the fate of Egypt than 
The kinghood, which God has ordained you to, unless 
My eyes, my heart, my deepest instincts, all deceive me.' 

MOSES: There was a time I could have been ambitious — yea. 
And that not long since, either — for the honor you 
Would thrust upon me; but — how can I put in words 
My thought? — I never used to feel a lack of words 
To speak what I would utter — meseems a power within me 
Forbids me this, but shows me yet no other course; 
And so the fire of my ambition has been quenched; 
And life, that to my eyes erewhile was so alluring, 
No more beguiles me, but appals me, rather — life, 
Which I behold a scene of misery and strife. 
Where brother against brother lifts the murderous hand. 
And no power I perceive the frenzy to withstand. 

i6 



SETI: I do not wonder that you feel so; but the fact 
Is God's most potent call for such as you to act. 
What power can hold our factious lords in leash, and stay 
The ills that threaten us, if one ordained to sway 
The destinies of men, as you have given proof 
You have been, from our struggles hold himself aloof? 
No, no, the righteous and eflacient must forego 
Their personal feelings in the matter, to bring low 
The selfish and ambitious, who would rule the state 
But for their own base ends. There is no other fate 
Than our supineness that compels us to be slaves 
Of faction-mongers and a horde of upstart knaves. 
'Tis not ambition calls you to the highest place; 
But duty which you cannot shirk without disgrace. 

MOSES: Too well I understand your reasoning; but foresee. 
As you do not, that on the throne of Rameses 
My arm were palsied, that I could not do the good 
That you, by your enthusiasm rendered blind. 
Would have me do. A cause I fear I should be rather 
Li more contention than a quelier oi our strife. 

SETI: My son, we're not to think too much upon tne event, 
But do the duty given us, whate'er the outcome; 
And yours, unless I have egregiously misread 
The decree of destiny, is to take up the sceptre, 
Now falling trom the palsied hand of Rameses, 
And wield for Egypt's glory as our most potent kings. 

MOSES: Believe me, that if God made clear this is my duty, 
I shall not shrink from it, whatever foes withstand: 
For at tiie call of duty I can dare all as 
No craven; but the doubt if this be duty brings 
The war within my bosom, and makes impotent 
To act in the emergency. 

SETI: If age, my son, 

Have given authority which merits that I should 
Be heard, I bid you for the honor of the priesthood. 
Ana for the good of Egypt, as the call of heaven, 
To sieze the sceptre from the hands that reach to grasp it, 
Desirous only for the personal power 'twill bring. 

MOSES: God knows that I esteem your judgment, father, and 
Would ao your bidding ere that of another — yea, 
Wouj.d make my rawer judgment yield to yours when there 
Were conflict, if the matter rested with myself. 
In this a power, however, I know not what, o'erroiles me. 
When I would do as you have bidden— and to speak truth 
I have not been devoid of all ambition — stopped 
I am, as by an impervious element, restricting 
All movement mitherward. I find myself, and much 
To my surprise — for you win bear me witness I 
Have not been wont to be a bungler — a mere tyro. 
Apparently foredoomed to fail, where others scarce 
My equals in ability or training win 
Successes mat make me appear a fool. Chagrined 
I have been at my proved incompetence, though feeling 
I have the manhood to succeeu but for the ban 
That dwarfs me. What the meaning of this fact 
I cannot fathom if it be not fate's decree. 
That elsewhere lies the go^al that has' beein set for me. 



17 



SETI: The purpose of your life will be made clear to you. 
If to the leadings of the spirit you be true. 
Yet still I think, in spite of all that you have said. 
That by your hand the sceptre of Egypt must be swayea. 
If not, I fear that evils we shrink from will befall. 
Woe to the state rejects him whom the Gods shall call. 
Doubtless the opposition you say that you have met 
Will pass with all the foes that have your way beset. 
The Gods would humble you, that when you reach the throne 
You may feel that their might has given it, not your own. 
So harbor not the thought that time may not yet bring 
The call you hear not now to be great Egypt's king. 
And I foresee for you a long and glorious reign. 
The wisdom of great Thothmes shall live in you again. 
Peace and prosperity shall bless your righteous sway; 
And men shall long remember illustrious Moses' day. 

(The curtain falls.) 



i8 



ACT SECOND. 

Before the walls of a treasure city or fortification. The body of a 
young man lies on a bier in the centre of the stage. 

SCENE FIRST. 

MIRIAM and CHORUS OF JEWISH MAIDENS, with cypress gar- 
lands on their heads. 

MIRIAM: Ah, gentle youth, whose life too soon is gone, 
Why nest thou low upon the bare, cold earth. 
Who wast the equal in true, manly worth 

Of any son 
Of Israel's much-afflicted race? 
Alas that we must bitterly bewail thy case! 
The cruel fate that laid thee low 
Before our stern, inveterate foe; 
The tyrant whose red henchman's murderous steel 
Stole thy young life, and in our grief no ruth doth feel! 
Come hither, maidens, and your flowers strew 
Upon the bier of Israel's fair young son, 
Who hath in his life's blushing morning gone, 
With the fresh dew 
Of heaven still on his pure, young heart. 
Bewail the direful ruins of the tyrant's art; 
The wreck of noble manhood made 
A desolation; weep mm laid. 
Low on the bare, cold ground, 'erewhile with, life aglow. 
Upon this consecrated earth your flowers strow. 

(Maidens cast their flowers upon tne bier and sing.) 
CHORUS: Flowers we strew upon thy bier, 
Flowers bedewed with many a tear, 
Sweet youth, whom death hai^ stricken before the time. 
Why art thou fallen, fallen in thy young prime. 
Whom we erewhile were wont to see 
Amongst us, with a step as free 

As the gazelle's, and front as bold 
As untamed lion's of the wold? 
Alas! Alas! We bitterly bewail the fate, 

Tnat from the pride of manhood brought thee low, 
Low as the earth whereon thou liest; 
The cold earth, that devours her offspring soon or late. 
Today thou uost thy life in beauty show. 
And ere the morrow dawn thou diest. 
A VOICE (sings) : 

Earth, receive his gentle mould 
Back into thy quickening womb; 
And may it suffer there a change 
Into something rare and strange! 

19 



Prom his dust let flowers bloom, 
Far more lovely to behold 
Than mortal eye hath ever seen 
In wooaland shade or meadow green. 
A SECOND VOICE: 

When through leafy bowers we wander. 

Or beside the sluggish stream, 
And behold some blossom yonder. 

Growing like a lovely dream 
From the slumbering earth, and breathe 

The sweet perfume it gives forth. 
May we feel him who beneath 
Slumbers in the silent earth! 
A THIRD VOICE: 

He is low, — ah! wherefore stricken? — 
Who but now^ — no other bolder — 
Walked the earth in manly vigor. 
Still he is, save as his golden 
Locks are by the light winds shaken. 
Dallying witn them as to waken. 
A FOURTH VOICE: 

And wilt thou not awaken, lovely one. 
To gaze with eagle eye upon the sun? 
Cannot the breezes from thy slumber woo, 
To brush away with early feet the dew. 
As fortn with all the lightness of the rqe. 
And strength of the maned lion thou dost go? 
MIRIAM: No, never wilt thou waken from the sleep 

That now has seized thy members: they shall fade. 
As roses fade; and in the dark earth's deep 
Recesses shall thy scattered dust be laid. 
And nevermore the beauty that erewhile 
In thy loved presence did our senses feed 
Shall we behold. Howe'er our hearts may bleed, 
Thou wilt not come our sorrow to beguile. 
CHORUS: Ah, whither art thou gone, thou gentle one. 
That thou dost not appear to our sad 'eyes? 
In what night dost thou wander that the sun, 
Which shines for us, upon thee does not rise? 
A VOICE (sings) : 

Cruel Death, why didst thou prey 
Upon his beauty? Couldst thou not 
Have found some form, that was a blot 
On the fair face of day. 
To feed thy gluttony. 
And left him in his youthful vigor free? 
MIRIAM: It was the tyrant who the ruin wrought 
In that fair form we shall not see again — 
The tyrant who hath into bondage brought 
Thy people. 
(She falls upon her knees before the body and with hands upraised 
to heaven continues.) 

Wilt thou not avenge thy slain. 
Our God, whose blood cries from the ground to thee? 

Alas if unto thee we cry in vain, — 
We who are trodden down, oppressed, unfree, — 
To help us in our weakness. Who can save. 
If thou dost not, who must our evils' see, 

20 



And canst strike off the fetters of the slave? 

God of our fathers, save, we pray, O pave! 
CHORUS (all fall upon their knees and with uplifted hands) : 
God, unto thee, with hands uplifted, do we pray- 
To visit us in our affliction, and to save 
From our oppressors. Oh, remember Abraham, 
Our father, who, a wanderer o'er the earth became 
For thy sake; and remember Joseph, whom thou madest 
In Egypt's evil day a saviour from a slave; 
And heed us whom the lords of Egypt so oppress. 
That all our days are filled wita grief and bitterness. 
Remember, God, thy children murdered, tender babes, 
Torn from the mother's breast and slam; and do thou take 
Vengeance upon the murderers. God, we pray thee aid 
Our fathers and our brothers, on whose necks is laid 
The yoke of bondage till tney can no more endune. 
In pity help us, we beseech thee, God, with pure. 
Unsullied lips. Strike off the fetters of the slave. 
Remember Abraham, our God, and save, oh, save. 

SCENE SECOND .— i' HE SAME. 

MOSES, in the splendid attire of an Egyptian prince, enters solilo- 
quizing. 

MOSES: Why I have let myself be led so far 
I know not; nor what may the outcome be 
Of this fool's errand on which I have come; 
This following of the wisp, that will belike 
Mock me at last. And yet to have resisted 
Would have required an exercise of will 
That it were pain to have made. For days I've striven 
Against the impulse — striven as with a power 
That has withstood me — striven as swimmers strive 
Witn the strong current that wears out their strength, 
Until, no longer able to resist, 
It bears them helpless onward. To have lived. 
Opposing by the sheer might of my will 
That force dead set against me, would have been 
Erelong impossible, fwere this or death — 
Death dealt perchance by my own hand. Therefore, 
Whatever be the outcome of this act, 
I care not. Better any fortune than 
The tortures I endure. But who are these. 
Who white-robed cast fresh flowers upon this bier? 
And who the youth who lies so beautiful 
In death, that death but seems a deeper sleep? 
If I may make so bold, tell me, fair maids. 
Who are you, and who he whom deam has taken? 
MIRIAM: Prince, behold the woful deed 

Of Egypt's mighty ones; behold 
Him, whom nature shapea to lead 

His people, lying stark and cold; 
And be thy bosom rent with grief. 
And gentle pity prompt the prayer, 
That He who fashioned one so fair 
Give to the sorrowing heart relief. 
CHORUS: Alas, our brother, fallen, fallen in thy young prime! 
Why broods that awful silence o'er thee, while we mourn, 

21 



the baleful stroke that laid thee low before thy tlrae? 
Why in the freshness of thy manhood wast thou torn 

From life, to wither and go down into the grave, 
For vampire Death to feed upon thy lovely form, 
Leaving us who have loved thee desolate? Thy arm, 

That should have been our strong defencei, can it not save? 

Alas, alas! It lies now idle at thy side; 

And the dull lid the brightness of thy eye doth hide; 

And we who loved thee as the light are desolate! 

We wander as in darkness and are desolate. 

MIRIAM: Behold the fruit of tyrant pride. 

The pomp and arrogance of power. 
And if within thy bosom hide 
One spark of manhood, from this hour 
Resolve that for fair woman's sake. 

Become the prey of greed and lust. 
And manhood fettered, thou wilt make 

Thy life an offering, from the dust 
To raise, and bondman's chains to break. 

CHORUS: Alas the sound of wailing that smites upon my ear! 

The cries of those heart-broken for loved ones lost I hear. 

The mother mourns her offspring torn from her throbbing 
breast 

And into the dark jaws of death by cruel tyrants pressed. 
Ah, for the thousands fallen ! But there has one been saved — 

Saved from the gloomy waters where the dark bulrush waved ; 

And, lapped in royal purple, a prince he has been bred; 

Our God ordained this that he might become his people's head. 
'Tis given to him ttie fetters to strike off ifrom thei slave; 

To lift up them who're fallen, and from defeat to save; 

To change our tears to gladness, to lighten our deep gloom; 

To break the pitiless sway that doth to fatal bondage doom. 
But ah, if he on glory and wealth have fixeid his^ thoughts 

Preferring to his people's the honors of the court! 

He with the bondman's stigma his father will defame; 

And on his motner's forehead fix the burning brand of shame. 

MOSES: I know not what your songs portend. xO me 
Dark is your meaning: yet my heart is thrilled 
With sympathy for human sorrow I 
Ne'er felt before. Meseems in nim wno lies, 
Stretcuea in the cold, unbroken calm of death, 
I see a brother nursed upon c^e breast 
That nursed me, though I wear a king's devjpe. 
And he have on the laborer's attire. ^ 

And you, who are you who address me — you 
Who lead this virgin choir robed in white; 
v»aose songs stir to the very depths my soul, 
That with an impulse I can scarce resist, 
I feel myself impelled to cast aside. 
As a fair mockery, these princely robes 
Of gold-embroidered purple, an^ to take 
My place amongst the laborers of the earth? 
Tell me, who are you: for my being throbs, 
Responsive to your music, as the harp 
Throbs when tne master strikes il. 

n 



MIRIAM: Virgins we, 

Who grieve for Israel, and pray our God, 
Who bade our father Abraham depart 
From Haran, to raise up a champion 
With might to baffle Egypt's haughty lords, 
And make our brothers, wno now groan in bonds. 
Free from the thralldom wherein manhood fades. 
As some rare blossom to a swift decline. 

MOSES: How every word you utter thrills my soul, 
LiKe the sweet tones of music long forgotten. 
That bring to consciousness a buried past 
I would retrace but cannot! SpeaK your name. 

MIRIAM: My name is Miriam; and he, who lies 
Stretcned nere before you in the sieep of death, 
Was erst my brother, whom the tyrant's hand 
Struck down, because in manly guise he dared 
To outface tyranny, and smite the wretch 
Who would have stained my honor. But a boy 
jrxe was; but there was in him the true spark 
Of manhood, that with happier auspices 
Had made him one of earth's most honored sons 

CHORUS: Fallen, fallen; in thy young manhood basely slain, 
Thou art gone down into the dark and silent grave. 
Where in the sleep of deatu the lord lies by the slave; 
And thou wilt never walk with us in strength again. 
Alas! Alas! And has thy blooc been shed in vain; 
Or from thy ashes will there rise up one to save. 
Who will procure for us the freedom that we crave, 
iireaking with God's strong help the tyrant's bonds in twain. 

MOSES: Maidens, I am a prince, who may perchance 
Sit on the throne of mighty Rameses; 
But this I swear, so do I loam the deed 
You tell me of; so sympathize with you 
In your deep sorrows and your brothers' ills. 
That, sooner than connive at such deep wrongs, 
I would forego the royal purple; all 
The emoluments and privileges of rank 
And wealth; for the slave's hard condition, or 
The lordly confines of some desert cave. 

MIRIAM: We thank thee for thy sympathy, and feel 
Drawn towara thee as to one of our own kin. 
Ah, if thou wert my brother! 

MOSES: Your brother! 

MIRIAM: I had a brother who should be a prince: 
For he was brought up as a princess' son. 
Whose pity savea him from impending death. 

MOSES: Where is he? 

MIRIAM: That I know not: for 'tis years 

Since I last saw him as a tender babe. 
But hark! My brother Aaron comes with those 
Who with him in the brickyards have all day 
Been laboring beneath the scorching sun. 
Ana the taskmaster's far more cruel lash. 

CHORUS: Oh, that chains those limbs should fetter. 
That were made to tread the earth, 
As free as their's who have no better 
Claim to what gives manhood worth! 

23 



Why should they all day be driveh 
Like dumb beasts, to whom was given 
Reason, the blest liguc of heaven? 

SCENE T H I R D.— T H E SAME. 

With AARON and CHORUS OF YOUTHS, in the garb of the 
laborer, with picks and shovels, and with chains upon the ankles. 
Moses in the centre background. The chorus of youths arrange 
themselves on one side of the stage and the chorus of maidens on 
tue otner. 

AARON: The weary day is done, and we are free 

To find in the forgetfulness of sleep , 

Cessation from our ills; a few short hours. 
Until at the first springing of the dawn 
We must be at our tasks, for our stern lords 
To spend our strength until we can no more. 
But urst we'll pay our tribute of respect 
To our poor brother, torn from life's green bough 
Long ere the time; but happier far in this 
Than we, who still must bend beneath the yoKe. 
CHORUS Ot' YOUTHS: 

O gentle Sleep, as tny twin sister Death, 
'±nou layest thy hand upon our fevered brows, 
And we become unconscious of our woes. 
In thy sweet presence. Brother, thy hard breath 
In bondage thou wilt have to draw no more; 
I<'or thou to thy eternal rest hast gone. 
To the harsh discipline of life no dawn 
Will waken thee, as us when night is o'er. 
And yet we grieve for tnee. 
The dear companion of our weary days, 
Vvno walked amongst us with a step as free 
As doth the lion in the forest maze. 

Thou wast no child of earth. 
Though our companion, but of heavenly birth. 
AARON: Sister, who is this stranger in the garb 

Of Pharaoh's minions? Wherefore does .xe stand 
Amongst us in this sadly solemn hour. 
To gaze upon our rites with alien eyes? 
MOSES (stepping forward) : 

I xi answer for myself. I cannot teli 
Why I am here, but that an impuisp drew — 
An impulse too imperious to resist— 
That as one in a charmed sleep my feet 
Brought me unweeting hither. 
AARON: Do not mock 

Our sorrow, stranger, with unmeaning words. 
MOSES: Far be't from me to speak unmeaning words 
In death's stern presence. What I said is truth: 
Nor do I know how better to express 
My actions; for mysteriously I have 
Been guided; have, against my will and judgment. 
Been overruled as by a stronger will. 
Brother, — if I may call thee so; for here 
I feel myself no alien, — let me stay 
And share in your solemnities. (He holds out his aand.) 

24 



AARON: Brother! 

Who in the garb of an Egyptian prince 

Dare take upon his perjured lips that name. 

Pregnant with all the sacred memories 

Of childhood and a common heritage? 
MOSES: If this dress be what have offended you, 

I will remove it, and in kindred garb 

Beside you cast my tribute on his bier; 

And bear with my own hands, if you permit, 

His dust to its last resting place with you. 
AARON: 'Tis not tne dress of purple and of gold 

That like the hated basilisk offends; 

But the Egyptian blood within your veins. 

Hence! Do not touch with alien hands his form. 

Which an Egyptian ruined. 
MOSES: If one ruined. 

May not another mourn at least the deed? 
AARON: Can an Egyptian prince feel for our ills? 
MIRIAM: Brother, you do not well so to repulse 

One who holds out the hand of fellowship. 

Accept it in the spirit it was given. 
AARON: Who knows what spirit prompted it? Belike 

He comes to spy upon our acts, or mock 

The misery proud Egypt's lords have caused. 
MOSES: Hear me. I should despise myself could I 

Be guilty of the purpose you surmise. 

That I am not your brother!, as you think 

Of brotherhood — a scion of your race — 

Does not forbid that I should feel with you 

In your affliction. And to speak the truth, 

Methinks my heart could not more strongly throb. 

Responsive to your feelings, if I were 

A Hebrew, as I am an Egyptian prince. 

In sooth — I know not why it should be so. 

But tnat it is so is indubitable — 

That never since I came to conscious life 

Have I been stirred so to my being's depths 

By kindred spirits as I have been here. 

I have been prompted more than once to kneel. 

Before you all, beside this hallowed dust. 

And press my lips to his cold lips as to 

A brother's. Every word of Miriam 

Has made my heart leap toward her; and to you, 

It was an impulse prompted not by form 

Or heartless courtesy, to. reach the hand. 

Let me, then, be your brother for nonce. 

And mingle my v/arm human tears with yours. 
CHORUS OF YOUTHS AND MAIDENS: 

How sweet the gentle tie of brotherhood, 
That binds us to a kindred life and good! 
To share one common lot, one common destiny; 
United in our joy and in our grief to be! 
How sweet to feel that one Is not alone 

When tne harsh hand of fate weighs heavily; 
That in the hour of evil there is nigh 
Some cherished one 
To lessen ill with human sympathy! 
In weakness there is strength for them who stand 

25 



United heart with heart and hand with iiand. 
The lils are lightened that our fellows bear; 
The joys are richer that with them we share. 
HALF CHORUS OP YOUTHS: 

Though hard one's toil, and weary hours 

He spend beneath the scorching sun; 
And though grim death before him lowers; 

To have at hand the cherished one, 
With whom, although so sorely driven, 
To hold sweet converse it is given, 
As they who walk the streets of heaven, 
Makes life more fair, as earth some delicate blossom. 
Or the dark cloud the rainbow on its bosom. 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: 

Gentle love, how radiant thou art! 
A many-tinted iris of the heart: 
A glory, heaven-begotten, born 

Upon the bosom of the soul's unrest, 
As from the womb of night the morn, 

Or as the babe upon its mother's breast. 
Heed, heed the promptings of the heart, which speak. 
Though heavy-footed reason hold aloof. 
Not with the leaden wings of flawless proof 
We reach the lofty goal our spirits seek. 
MOSES: I would be as your brother; I would take 
If it might be the place of him who's gone. 
But if my presence give offense, since fate 
Ordained me in a palace to be born. 
And reared as one of Egypt's princes, while 
No more unworthy ye were to the life 
Of toil begotten, I will take myself 
Elsewhere, that, troubled by no alien presence. 
Ye may perform his obsequies, whose death, 
Did I obey the promptings of my heart, 

I would deplore with you. (He holds out his hand.) 

AARON: Not in that garb, 

Wherein so lives, before me Egypt's pride. 
Whose baleful venom robbed me of a brother, 
That seeing it I could not hola in check 
My anger ready to burst into flame. 
MOSES: These robes that so offend you I will change. 
Revealing to you in my like attire 
My kindred hearty that, keyea to unison 
With yours, will beat accordant with your grief. 
I leave you for a while, and will return. 
If this be not repugnant to you, clad. 
No longer in the glittering robes of state. 
But in the laborer's humbler garb ye wear. 
MIRIAM: Return. We will not hold ourselves aloof. 
From one who of true sympathy gives proof. 
Perchance beneath an alien garb may burn 
A brother's heart that feels with us. 
AARON: Return. 

(Moses goes out.j 

SCENE FOURTH.— MIRIAM, AARON and the CHORUS. 
AARON: Sister, I am surprised that you have shown 

26 



Such favor to a stranger; have received 
In friendly converse one we know naught of, 
But that with fair professions and fond speech 
He thrusts himself amongst us quite unasked. 

MIRIAM: I am scarce less surprised that you reveal 
Such acrimony. I could not refuse 
The profferea courtesy of one whose words 
Thrilled me as words have seldom thrilled before. 

AARON: Your heart will make a fool of you belike. 

MiRIAM: Methinks the heart would be a surer guiae 
More often than cold reason. 

AARON: Such a guiae 

As the mirage, which in the desert leads 
The thirsty traveler a weary jaunt, 
To leave him in the utmost straits at last 
With nothing but the burning sands around. 

MIRIAM: But what if it should prove the gentle prince, 
For all his anen garb which so olfends 
Your Jewish sense, were our own brother? 

AARON: Eh! 

Is it in that direction that your thought 
Pursues him? 

MIRIAM: Wherefore not? We have a brother, 

Or should have, in the court of Pharaoh bred; 
Who, if not recreant to his Jewish blood, 
Should in this presence feel some kindred curill. 
Prophetic of his birth and aestiny. 

AARON: It is a too fond fancy, that I fear 
Has but small chance of confirmauon. 

IWxRIAM: Why 

Not fondle this sweet thought until events 
Prove it fallacious or confirm? 

AARON: Why not 

Surrender up oneself to every dream 
That pleases the fond fancy, reason- Diind, 
Foregoing hold upon reality? 

MIRIAM: Such hopes may not be cloud-towers, having not 
A basis on the solid ground of fact. 

AARON: And they may be. 

MIRIAM: When there's an equal chance 

That our most flattering hopes may not be false, 
And when in confirmation the fond heart 
Proclaims them true, why not accept its voice, 
Though laggard reason bring objections forth, 
To conquer faith with its obnoxious brood, 
Begotten of hesitancy and ill-will? 

AARON: How ready women are to be deceived. 
So the deceiver wear the gracious garb 
Of courtly manners and obsequious speech! 

MIRIAM: Must one forever wear the gloomy veil 
Suspicion dictates, and with earth-bent eye 
Demurely walk, lest on the golden wings 
Of fancy soaring heavenward he fall? 
But truly, brother, it appears no stretch 
Of fond imagination, to conceive 
. That he who for the sorrow that he feels 
For our dear loss, and hatred of the act 
"It'ljat robbed us of our fair young brother, our 

?7 



Lost brother may be — lost in infancy 
To us in the strange world of Pharaoh's court. 
AARON: I will believe when certain proof declare 
This is so and cannot be otherwise. 
Sister, till then I hold the prince, although he come 
Stripped of his gay apparel in our somb'rer robes 
Of service, an Egyptian, not to be received 
But with suspicion, till he shall have proved nim'self 
Worthy our conudence. But let us not contend 
In words around our brother's still unburied dust. 
CHORUS: Alas that they who sit in royal state 
Prom them who in the garb of service wait. 
Should hold themselves aloof, as from an alien race. 
And in the scale of manhood should strive more to abase! 
In form are we not all of kindred stock? 
As statues chiselled from the self-same block? 
The prince and slave have issued from one womb, 

And life's short fever o'er, 
Both must go down into the silent tomb, 

And here be known no more. 
Naked we came into the world each one. 
And naked must go hence when life is done. 
HALF CHORUS OF YOUTHS: 

Are we not men, though destined to a life 

Of toil, as they in courtly circles bred? 
We have the passions that in them are rife, 

And crave on truth and beauty to be fed. 
But we are scorned and flouted by the proud, 
Who differ from us but in what they have. 
A man's a man although he be a slave, 
Prophetic nature cries in accents loud. 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: 

However men deny, the stamp of race 

Proclaims the slave and courtier of one blood. 
Though beautiful or marred appear the face. 

Like features show essential brotherhood. 
Alas that paltry differences of state 
Should make them aliens in one womb conceived! 
When shall the slave from fetters be relieved, 
The courtier from his pride, and all from hate? 

SCENE FIFTH.— THE SAME. JOCHEBED and MOSES, the latter 
in the dress of the Hebrew youths. 

JOCHEBED: What means the sound of faction I have heard. 
Where all should be in brotherly accord? 

(She looks to Miriam and Aaron, but receives no answer.) 
Does no one answer? Will no voice reply? 
Why stand .you with flushed cheek and down-bent eye? 
A MAIDEN (sings): 

One hither came in princely guise, 
In purple clad and burning gold. 
A maiden's heart could not be cold. 
Beholding such a form, and eyes 
So lustrous that were scarce more bright 
The sun's when putting sombre night 
And all his gruesome shades to flight. 

28 



A YOUTH (sings) : 

Not in purple and in gold 
Did lie more manly to our eyes 
Appear than in the lowly guise 
That he has taken. We behold 
One kinglrer as we see him now. 
With coarse attire and naked brow, 
Than when he sought in raiment bright 
To dazzle like the orb of light. 
MIRIAM: Mother, the young man who has come with you 
Was her© erewhile in gold-embroidered robes; 
And though a prince of Egypt's royal blood, 
As his attire bespoke him, the true heart 
Of manhood in him beat in unison 
With us in our affliction, that he wept 
Tears over our poor brother basely slain. 
AARON: Yea, an Egyptian royally attired 2 

Came hither, and although with glozing speech 
He spoke us fair, and as of kindred blood 
Would have bewailed with us our brother slain, 
The vision of his glory venomed sight. 
As of the basilisk whose look is fatal. 
MOSES (Stepping forward) : 

Tnerefore as hateful he has laid aside 
Those basilisk robes, and stands before you clad 
In no more rich apparel than your own, 
That he may prove, if kindred idress can prove, 
That not in specious words of sweet accord 
He spoke of feeling as a brother feels ' 

Toward a brother; but in very truth 
Declared the yearning that within his breast 
Was struggling for expression. Will you not 
Accept this token of sincerity. 
And take the hand that honestly is given? 
HALF CHORUS OP YOUTHS: 

Men will not refuse the hand 

Of one who can thrust rank aside. 
With them a brother so to stand; 

Feeling no treachery can hide 
Within his bosom who will tear 
Away the masks, and lay all bare 
His heart, for the sharp, searching light of day 
Down into its most deep recess to stray. 
(Aaron takes Moses' hand, but with signs of repugnance.) 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: 

Sweet it is when hand in hand 
Men united, as one band 
Of brothers stand, of brothers stand. 
Heaven-begotten are the ties 

That heart with heart accordant bind. 
Whence men can act without disguise, 
All of one mind, all of one mind. 
JOCHEBED: Heaven-begotten they are indeed, my daughters. 
And in a deeper sense than ye surmise: 
For he who now holds Aaron by the hand 
Is not of alien blood, howe'er his dress 
When he came hither seemed to speak him so. 
He is a son of Israel no less 

29 



Than these whose kindred garb he has assumed; 
No less than Aaron; for from the same womb 
He issued; from the 'same that gave him birth 
Who lies now still upon the hard, cold earth. 
MIRIAM: O my prophetic spirit! In my heart 
A thrill when first I saw him seemed to say, 
This is thy brother; he whom God did part 
From thee and his in Israel's evil day; 
In the long death of years to live estranged, 
Till time should give him back the same though changed. 
JOCHEBED: One son is taken, and one from the dead 
Come back in princely guise to take the place 
He has left vacant Moses is indeed 
Your brother, Aaron, in the palace bred. 
Although of Israel's down-trodden race. 
MOSES: My brother I can call thee without fear 
Or contradiction, brother, now 'tis proved 
Thou art such; yet the heart had said as much, 
Ere laggard proof confirmed its budding faith. 
AARON: Brother, I scarcely yet can reconcile 
Belief with fact — my brother — yes, my heart 
Spoke, too; but I suppressed its promptings, blind 
With prejudice and envy of the guise 
In which you came, of an Egyptian lord, — 
Of one of those who struck our brother down. 
But why did you not tell me in plain terms 
You were my brother? 
MOSES: Since I knew it not. 

AARON: You knew not? 

MOSES: No, I only learned the truth 

But now, — learned from our mother, whom I met 
On leaving you to change my princely garb 
For this I wear. 
AARON: Tell me how meeting grew 

To recognition. 
MOSES: Ask ouri mother that. 

JOCHEBED: As I came hither in my mourning robes, 
To take a last look at my darling boy. 
Ere we should lay away his precious dust 
Within the cold, dank earth, I met your brother, — 
Met, and was astonished tO' behold 
An Egyptian as he seemed to my bleared sight; 
And my heart, apprehensive of more ill, 
Throbbed violently. Then I recalled a dream. 
In which methought I saw a flame arise 
Out of the bosom of our dear one slain. 
And taking form and substance a strong youth, 
Clad in the rich apparel of a prince 
Of Egypt there appeared before me. Features 
And form I marked distinctly, and not less 
Each striking characteristic of his dress; 
And all I saw repeated in the youth 
Who suddenly appeared to me in truth. 
Suspicion then to firm conviction grew. 
That he who came so heralded could be 
No other than my son long lost to me. 
And questioning proved my surmises true. 

30 



CHORUS: Out of death new life arises: 

Nothing dies, but suffers change. 
Spirit constantly surprises 
Us in aspects rare and strange. 
We lay the mould within the teeming earth, 
And marvellous flowers are quickened into birth; 
A lovely progeny from the prolific womb 
Of ever-fruitful nature. From the silent tomb, 
Wherein our hopes are buried, will arise 
What flowers to blossom beneath fairer skies! 
MOSES (kneeling before the body) : 

Gentle one, so foully brought to death, 

I vow, that if God give to me the strength, 
I will avenge thee. May thy spirit breathe 

In me, who to my heritage at length 
Have come; the heirship ol my people's woes. 
I have been educated by their foes, 
That to a better future I may lead, 
If not amiss life's riddle do I read. 
CHORUS: Hope rises up within our hearts anew, 

Like flowers jewelled with the morning dew. 
A man has fallen and a man has come, 
Forth like the sun when from the sombre womb 
Of night he issues, with resplendent face. 
To fill the earth with loveliness and grace. 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: 

O thou wasi Deautiful, whose form we lay 
Within the sunless earth, in the cold dust away. 
Thou wast the dawn, whose early coming told, 
That night, decrepit grown and old. 
Would soon be thrust from his usurping sway 

By younger day. 
The star of morning wast thou in our sight, 
That shines resplendent on the brow of night, 
The radiant herald of the brighter reign. 
Will ease us of our sorrow and our pain. 
HALF CHORUS OF YOUTHS: 

Gentle youth, we bear thee sacily hence. 
To lay thy body in the cold, dank soil. 
No more the sweet companion of our toil. 
Wilt thou wise counsel and good cheer dispense. 
But thou nas left an heir, who as the flame 
From thy pure spirit, will in princely guise 
Soar to the zenith skies. 
Triumphant o'er the murderer's fallen fame. 
(Miriam kneels at the head and Aaron at the feet of the dead 
youth; Moses remains kneeling beside and behind the bier. 
Jochebed stands over them, with eyes uplifted to heaven and 
with hands spread out over her children.) 
JOCHEBED: For Israel's saKe, my children, may ye live 
United, working in accord to free! 
Pledge yourselves here all your best powers to give, 

That from her limbs the chains may stricken be. 
Die if you must, but dying, die to save 
Your people from the powers that would enslave. 
CHORUS: God of our fathers, hear the prayer we raise 
To thee, who guided them through all their days. 
To guide thy servants now, and to release 



From bondage those who're driven without surcease, 
To toil for cruel lords, who think of naught but gain. 
And fill their waking hours with bitterness and pain. 

(Curtain falls.) 



3? 



ACT THIRD. 

Audience room in the palace of Pharaoh. The firet scenes in the 
antechamber, separated from the main room by heavy curtains, 
which are afterward drawn aside. 

SCENE FIRST .— M OSES and P B N T A U R . 

PENTAUR: My good companion of my student days, 

With whom I have had many a friendly joust 

In logic and at making of quaint verse, 

I am right glad to see thee. I have pined 

To have sweet converse with thee as I used. 

How have you been employed these many weeks? 

Brooding quaint fancies into studious rhyme? 
MOSES: No, Pentaur, I have taken of late disgust 

At such mere dilettante tasks as these. 
PENTAUR: Then have I lost the critic of my verse 

The most discerning. 
MOSES: Possibly to find 

A more exacting critic. There is naught 

Of immortality in polished rhymes 

And quaint conceits. When in majestic verse 

The mighty throbbings of a nation's heart 

Are heard, the poet's airy words are more 

Than brass and sculptured stone enduring; more 

Than all the praises of a clique, his is 

The sincere homage of a people's love. 
PENTAUR: Your words remind me of the high ideal 

To which I have aspired. In mighty verse 

I would sing Egypt's glory. 
MOSES: Can you that 

You will do valiantly. But much I fear 

That Egypt has already passed her prime, 

And entering on evil days at hand 

Cannot sustain the poet of your dreams. 
PENTAUR: I trust it be not so. 'Tis hard to think 

Of long-victorious Egypt in decline. 

But whence do you prognosticate so dark 

A future? 
MOSES: 'Tis of sinister import, 

That for the patriotism which opposed i 

The foreign kings, w'ho long had held in awe 

The nation conquered and disorganized, 

Both in the state and court rank factions breed ; 

And blind ambition to mere selfish ends 

Our dearest interests sacrifices, while. 

Beneath the foot of pompous tyranny, 

Groan in their agony crushed millions. These 

Are the portentous symptoms of disease, 

That will breed schism if not quickly healed, 

And schism civil warfare and defeat. 



PENTAUR: I fear your diagnosis is too true 

A statement of the evils that afflict 

The land. And yet I trust the malady 

Is not incurahle. 
MOSES: So did I long, 

And fancied it were in my power to heal; 

But I have come to think of my poor skill 

More soberly, and have convinced myself 

The most heroic treatment is required 

To stop the disease. 
PENTAUR: And who than you more fit 

To make the prescription? 
MOSES: Nay, that cannot he. 

The mere suggestion of my purpose would 

Awake the bitterest antagonism. 

I would be forced at one stroke to o'erturn 

The policy pursued by Rameses, 

Which so accrues in profit to the lords, 

That one and all are pledged to its support. 

That to uphold it they would wreck the state. 
PENTAUR: I do not grasp your meaning. 
MOSES: Well, in short. 

The Israelites must be no more enslaved. 

But given as men an equal chance to win 

The highest goal of their ambition. Aye, 

I see you go not with me. Yea, my friend, — 

If ever I have spoken the truth, 'tis now, — 

This is the remedy that will avail, 

And this alone, that Egypt's ancient stock 

And Israel must be welded intO' one. 

Becoming one united people; or 

The cleavage will to separation grow, 

And in the birth-throe of an alien state 

Egypt will cruelly be torn and gashed. 
PENTAUR: But can you not do aught to prevent the schism? 
MOSES: It is and is not possible. In me, 

And me alone, the stock of Israel 

And Egypt's culture are united. Could 

I be received as king, within myself 

Uniting all the forces in the state. 

As in my person the two peoples meet, 
Twere in my power to stay the malady, 

And Egypt to a higher pitch of glory 

To lead than she has ever yet attained. 

But it is vain to think of this. Would I 

The factious policy of Menephthah 

Pursue, I could defeat his arts, and place 

Upon my brows the crown of Rameses. 

But that would be to seek a lower than 

The kingship to which I have been ordained. 
No, Egypt does not want a king who would 

Be king of all her people — of the slave 

As of the lord — but a mere party chief, 

Whose factions followers can have their will; 

And so will I be thrust out from the throne, 

Damned by the one fact I will not conceal, 

That I'm a son of oppressed Israel. 



34 



SCENESECON D.— T H E S A M E, P R I N C E S S. 

PRINCESS: Wliat did I hear? A son of Israel? 
How came you by that knowledge, I have kept 
A hidden mystery from you all these years? 
MOSES: I have been drawn inexplicably of late 
Toward the Israelites, whose cruel lot 
Awoke a kindred pity in my breast. 
Though I knew not they were my brothers. 
PRINCESS: How 

Pound you that out? 
MOSES: I chanced upon a scene 

That well might move the most obdurate pride. 
A tender youth was stretched out cold in death. 
Slain by the vile assassin's venomed steel; 
And as I mingled with the weeping train, 
I struggled with the thought that would intrude 
Upon my mind, that he was of my kin; 
And as it proved, prophetic was the thrill 
That stirred me, since he was my brother. 
PRINCESS: Yet 

You have not told me how you learned this fact. 
MOSES: I learned it from the wife of Amram, she 
Who gave me birth; and learned therewith her arts 
To save me, threatened with impending death; 
And how I came to be brought up by you, 
My foster-mother, as an Egyptian prince. 
PRINCESS: Well, you have found out what I would have hidden 
For your own peace of mind, the mystery 
Of your existence, — hidden that you might deem 
Yourself a prince of Egypt, and might act 
With no obtrusive consciousness of self 
Strongly the part. 
MOSES: Perhaps you had done better 

To have informed me; for the mystery 
Was a disturbing feature in my life. 
Ere I had learned the secret of my birth. 
PRINCESS: For good or ill the mischief has been done. 
Which I would have undone if possible; 
For I foresee the knowledge will affect 
Your attitude toward all existing facts. 
MOSES: It cannot but do so; but yet, my mother, 
(For you are such as she who gave me birth) 
I am no less an Egyptian that I am 
An Israelite. 
PRINCESS: I would you were all mine, 

And Egypt's, as before this grievous news, — 
Grievous to me, who're jealous of your fame, — 
Came to disturb the vigor of your life 
By giving it an alien purpose, — came. 
With its abasing tendency, to make 
You less the man than I would have you. 
MOSES: Less 

Than manly is it to acknowledge brotherhood 
With them of harder fortune, but of kindred blood ? 
If to have thrust aside life's pomp and pageantry 
Be baseness, base perchance I may be forced to be. 
But if to do a deed unworthy make one base, 
Be sure I will not bring a blush upon your face. 

35 



PRINCESS: Ah, Moses, I would have you sit upon the throne 
Of Rameses, whose term of life is nearly done. 
For you to be less than the king of Egypt were 
To fall short of the honor you might hope to bear. 
But if you will proclaim yourself an Israelite, 
I fear another will deprive you of your right. 

MOSES: If as an Israelite I can be king, to do 

All justice, and to follow the course I deem is true, 
I will be king, and none shall take from me the place; 
But never if to be such I must deny my race. 

(A flourish of trumpets is heard, and a herald passes across 
the stage.) 

HERALD: Great Rameses comes hither — may he live forever! — 
The mighty king of Egypt, who has more advanced 
The nation's fame and glory than any king before. 
Prepare, all ye who hear, to give him fitting welcome, (Exit.) 

PENTAUR: We can no more converse; for presently the king 
Seated will be upon his throne in royal state. 
And gracious audience will give to all his lords. 
These curtains will be drav/n aside, and we will stand 
With others in the dazzling presence of the king. 

PRINCESS: It is no secret that the aged king today 
Will give a hearing to all rival claims, and choice 
Will make of one to wear the crown when he is gone. 
And O, my son— or must I call thee so no more. 
Though I have loved thee as a son and still so love — 
^ I would that choice might light on thee, vv^hom I believe 
(And it is not my fondness now that speaks, but firm 
(Conviction and clear reason) worthiest of ail 
Competitors between whom choice must make decision. 

(The curtains are drawn aside, revealing Rameses crowned 

and seated upon his throne, and lords and courtiers taking their 

places at either side.) 

SCENE THIRD. 

RAMESES: Listen, my lords and courtiers all, who lustre take 
From royalty's bright presence, as the sovereign sun 
Makes all the clouds resplendent. We have called you here 
For conference upon a most momentous act. 
The choice of one who shall inherit after us . 

The dignities that we must presently lay down. ! 

But first let me refresh your memories, bringing up 
Before you facts, which hardly one in presence now 
Has personal knowledge of; but I, whose memory " 

Can span three-quarters of a century, recall. 
'Tis sixty years since, in my father Seti's days. 
The royalties fell to me, that I must transmit 
Now to another; and ye all will bear me witness. 
That not obscured in lustre I will pass them on 
To him who shall succeed me. I have raised the fame 
Of Egypt, that no mightier state in all the earth 
Exists, and have with splendid works adorned the land. 
I hardly need remind you of my victories. 
The fame whereof lives on all lips; my victories 
O'er many peoples gained and in far distant land^. 
First, a mere stripling, while my father Seti still 
Held equal sway with me in Thebes, in the far south, 

36 



O'er the black Ethiop I won, that he ne'er dared 
Again to lift up his rebellious heal. Ere long 
In Canaan with the contumacious Hittite state, 
That has so often put to the test the Egyptian strength, 
I battled, and victorious returned to Thebes, 
Bringing rich booty and innumerable slaves. 
Against these foes, that conquered with recovered power 
■ Resume the conflict, I have led campaigns a score. 
And never have returned home worsted; and at last, 
Methinks I have so shattered them they will no more 
Spring up to trouble us. Even to the far Euphrates 
My conquering arms I have extended, and have made 
Stout Babylon pay tribute. In the distant north 
I have won victories o'er the fair-haired men, who dwell 
On sea-engirdled isles and wave-washed shores, and looked 
Upon the Argive king who from Mycaenae rules them. i 

PENTAUR (sings): 

With our sincere regard we honor thee, great king. 

Whose lustrous deeds inspire the patriot heart to sing 

Thy praises in majestic verse. Thy peerless might 

Has made thee like a god, invincible in fight. 

Upon thy arms has fickle victory ever smiled, 

Whether in Babylon or Greece the many-isleJ, 

For Egypt thou hast fought, or led thy armies forth 

To battle in the burning south or colder north. 

Thy conquering sword like lightning has flashed when thou hast 

drawn; 
The foes that have assailed thee, like night before the dawn 
Have vanished, or as clouds before the radiant sun; 
And thou no less in splendor than his thy course hast run. 

RAMESES: Now to the purpose. In the course of nature we 
Cannot expect to hold a much extended lease 
Of life, and our enfeebled strength reminds the weight 
Of kinghood should upon a younger frame be laid. 
But whose? Upon this question hangs the fate of Egypt. 
The choice we make decides for better or for worse 
Her fortunes, whether to a height yet unattained 
She shall go on ascending, or from now decline 
Into an ever-lessening place amongst the nations. 
Speak, my lords and courtiers. What have ye to say 
Of weight or reason to decide us in this choice? 
And first to thee, most worthy priest, do we address 
Ourself. In freedom give your counsel. 

SETI: August king, 

Methinks your wisdom has divined already whom 
I would see wear your crown and sway the sceptre you 
So long have swayed for Egypt's honor. Nor alone 
Am I in deeming him the worthiest, whose name 
I put in nomination, — Moses, who has shown 
The mind to comprehend the weightiest arguments. 
And more than any other (in this I speak my deep 
Conviction) has imbibed, and made it his possession. 
All the rich culture Egypt has in centuries 
Accumulated, making her in more than might 
Of arms the foremost of the nations of the earth. 
This is no paltry commendation, and to this 
There must be added, that he is no mere recluse, 
Who knows no fellowship but books, but one whom life 

37 



Has had its charms for; one above all who has laid 
The potent spell of his strong personality, 
Although so young, on others. 

MENEPHTHAH: Permit me, gracious king, 

Whose long and glorious reign has rendered Egypt great. 

To make an earnest protest against the choice of Moses. 

Great Rameses should be succeeded by a man, 

Who will pursue the policy that has accrued 

In so great gain for Egypt; who will carry out 

As Rameses' own self the projects you have started. 

And on the lines you have laid down conduct the state; 

Not one who has in open and unmeasured terms 

Condemned, and uttered threats, if he should reach the throne 

Completely to reverse the policy you have 

Pursued with such success. 

RAMESES: If this be true 'twill bar 

Inevitably the choice of Moses; for I wish 
To seat no revolutionist upon my throne, 
With rash hand to undo all I have done for Egypt. 
Tell me, Moses, wnat were your purpose should the crown 
Be placed upon your head and sceptre in your hand. 

MOSES: Illustrious king, to give my life for Egypt, that 
If possible she might become a nobler state 
Than you have left her. 

RAMESES: Well, this sounds assuredly. 

I find no tang of revolution in these words. 

MENEPHTHAH: Fair speeches easily are coined when kings re- 
quire. 

MOSES: Siire, in my heart I have no other wish for Egypt 
Than to behold her magnified. 

MENEPHTHAH: Would you not see 

The nobles lowered, and slaves of alien race exalted? 

MOSES: I would see equal justice done to all, — to slaves 
Not less than those who can trace back their pedigree, 
Beyond the times when alien kings oppressed the land, 
To those when primal Menes and lordly Cheops reared 
The pyramids. 

MENEPHTHAH: Fair sounding words; but in plain parlance, 
They mean, believe me, mighty Rameses, injustice 
To those you have been pleased to honor, — to the men 
Of pure Egyptian blood, who under you have done 
The doughty deeds that have established Egypt's fame. 

RAMESES: Most worthy priest, help disentangle this dispute. 

SETI: Sire, Moses, if I understand his attitude," 
Feels, as do others, that the warlike policy 
So long pursued, however justifiable. 
Cannot without exhaustion be continually 
Pursued; and, therefore, do the nobles, who have thriven 
In war to an unconscionable extent, and would 
In peace sink back within more reasonable bounds, 
Decry his exaltation to the throne, denouncing 
The loss of prestige likely to accrue to them. 
As Egypt's, not their own. 

MENEPHTHAH: Sire, would you wish to see 

The arms rust on the walls, that under your command 
Have flashed upon all peoples Egypt's mightier manhood? 
Nay, I know you would not, — know you would regret 
As lamentable weakness, immeasurable decline, 

38 



A policy averse to war, which you've pursued 

So vigorously, and have so well provided for 

In arsenals and muniments and granaries, 

Which hordes of slaves— the Israelites and those you Ve brought 

From north, south, east and west— have labored to procure you. 

R AMESES: Truly I have not stinted warlike preparations, 
For I have felt that Egypt must assert heneelf, 
Or have the ability to do so, if she hold 
The primacy amongst the nations. 

MOSES: Sire, you look 

For me to justify myself and my intents. 
'Tis true, as the good father here has said, I feel 
"Without exhaustion Egypt cannot further spend 
Her strength in distant conquests and uncertain war. 
Wherein she's done enough to make her might apparent; 
Nor is the glory of a nation but in arms. 
Methinks you will be more remembered in the times 
To come for all the noble works you have achieved 
In art, than victories the fame of which will die 
Upon the lips of your coevals, or will live 
But in vague rumor. Nor have I been blind to the fact, 
I'hat 'tis this policy has hardened so the hearts 
Of Egypt's lords against the Israelites, who stood 
For Egypt loyally when battling for her life, 
And couic.. have been indissolubly bound to the fate 
Of Egypt, but have been so alienated by 
Maltreatment that betwixt them and more courtly Egypt 
Schism grows, of sinister import, that may 
Disrupt the state. 

MENEPHTHAH: You with your own ears, Rameses, 

Have heard him pass upon your policy harsh judgment, 
Daring to plead tor Israelites you have enslaved. 

MOSES: I do plead for them, most illustrious king, feeling 
In my heart pity; and I plead for Egypt, pleading 
For those who should as sons be treated, but are treated 
As beasts; for weaker is the state where any man 
Cannot assert his manhood; strongest that where most 
Completely each can realize the best that's in him. 

RAMESES: 'Tis as I feared: you are a theorist, than whom 
There is no helmsman less reliable to rule 
A state. 'Tis well enough to dream of equal rights: 
But facts are facts, and slaves must by the lash be driven. 
While those of nobler instincts rule as they were born to. 
And now what were your policy, if unto you 
The crown were given, Menephthah? 

MENEPHTHAH: Illustrious king, 

You have in few words voiced my feelings. Were I king 
I would even to the last iota follow out 
your policy, — would open wide the door to merit. 
And with the whip would hold the mass in wholesome fear. 
And so get out of them— I thank the good prince for 
The word^all that is in them. 

PENTAUR: Within the humblest bosom 

A life there is may burst forth into wondrous blossom. 
The heart that now lies barren as the desert's waste 
Will teem with beauty if the waters it but taste. 
As Egypt from the sands where flows the unfailing Nile. 
The spirit quickened will from sterile nature smile. 
The Sphynx, that wondrous form half bestial and half human, 

39 



Not in mere stone we meet, but in each man and woman. 

It is the immortal spirit from the enswathing power 

Of nature breaking here first into marvellous flower. 

Fear will not bring it forth; the lash cannot reveal 

The hidden mystery each bosom doth conceal. 
MOSES: Illustrious king, the poet's song has uttered truth. 

The servile labor you can get from maid or youth 

Beneath the driver's lash is not the mystery 

Would burst forth into marvellous beauty were they free. 

Give culture to the people, and the mind and heart 

Will have expression in fair life and noble art. 

The nation has not reached the acme of her fame 

Till every soul can realize its highest aim. 
R AMESES: And do you tell me, Moses, that the bestial herd 

Of coarse-grained men and women are capable of more 

Than the slave's work we give them; that the Israelites 

If given culture might of Egypt's ancient stock 

Become the peers? 
MOSES: Why not? 

RAMESBS: Where have you proof of this? 

MOSES: Sire, I will answer by a tale. A mother once. 

An Israelitish mother, gave birth to a boy. 

Whose life was threatened; wherefore to defend her child. 

She made an ark of bulrushes besmeared with pitch. 

And laid it with the child upon the river's brink; 

And there a princess found who thither came to bathe. 

And pitying took, and as h'er own brought up the babe, 

He grew to manhood and in every art was trained. 

And disciplined in mind and body people felt. 

That he who else unlettered had grown up a slave, 

Lacked not the qualities that fitteu him to reign. 
MENEPHTHAH: Great king, since he has mentioned with no 
blush of shame 

His humble origin, what need I to say more? 

Is he who boasts an Israelitish mother bore 

The man whom Pharaoh should appoint to uphold his fame? 
MOSES: Once more, great Pharaoh, hear me. If in Egypt's king 

All that today is Egypt should be found, I am, 

In virtue of my birth and aii-controlling fate. 

Ordained her king; for in me all the lines have met 

That are when gathered in one nexus Egypt. Birth 

Has made akin to Egypt's toiling millions, — slaves 

I am aware we call them, yet Egyptians, if 

Not only those who rule are Egypt; and I have 

That culture which alone has rendered Egypt great; 

Without which none were different from our grossest slaves, 

Or him who roves in untamed savagery the waste. 

I am an Egyptian of the Egyptians, Rameses, 

In this, as in my native stock an Israelite. 
RAMESES: Moses, that bar sinister had not condemned, 

Had you as others been oblivious thereof. 

But since you boast your humble birth, hence, to your own! 

The foundling of a slave sits not upon my throne. 
MOSES: I bow Defore the will of mighty Rameses. 
RAMESES: Prince Menephthah, your arm; for faintncds doth me 
seize. 

My lords and counsellors, I now dissolve this court. 

I fear the time remaining for me to reign is short. 

40 



THE WHOLE ASSEMBLY: Live, mighty king, forever: Long Jive 
great Rameses! 
(Pharaoh retires, leaning on the arm of Menephthah. All follow 
but Moses ^nd Seti.) 

SCENE FOURTH— MOSES and SETL 

SETI: My son, the choice of Rameses is clear. 

Prince Menephthah will be our future king; 

And you, who should have been such, will be driven 

To alienate yourself from us; to live 

An outcast from the light of Egypt's court, 

With slaves for your companions; or to dwell 

An exile amongst strangers, distant far 

From our clear culture, in the outer world 

Of formless savagery, in which dark chaos 

A lovely world of order Egypt stands, 

Sprung from the illimitable increate. 

As her fair country from the desert's sands. 
MOSES: I know not what the future have in store; 

But trust that I may have the strength to meet 

Whatever fortune come. 
SETI: Yet I deplore 

The fortune that has robbed you of the crown, 

Which was your due. 
MOSES: I waste no vain regrets 

For what I well foresaw could not be ming. 

Save at a price I could not pay. 
SETI : Alas, 

That you had not kept silent on that fact, 

Which had not damned you but from your own lips! 
MOSES: Would you have had me, to have won the crov/n 

Of Rameses, deny my manhood? 
SETI: Nay, 

My son; but hardly can I deem it this 

To have made no boast of Israelitish birth. 
MOSES: I boasted not — I would much rather boast 

Of my Egyptian culture — but the fact 

Untold of my discovered parentage 

Would have made all my life a lie. 
SETI: A lie! 

I do not understand your casuistry. 
MOSES: Were I not less than man to have forsworn 

For Egypt's culture and her crown my nature? 

I would have made my culture but a show. 

And kinghood but the glittering robes of state; 

While in my heart I would have been a slave 

And savage. 
SETI: It would seem all must be such 

From your description; all are to be damned. 

If such a conflict 'twixt the essential life 

And outward state be damnable. 
MOSES: I am 

No casuist to say this must be so; 

But just a stern logician, who would prove 

His logic on himself. I can but feel 

A mockery that culture which is not 

An expression of the life; and, feeling this, 

41 



Of Egypt — that is of mere courtly Egypt — 
I could not have been king wiihout denying 
My nature, which in bondage groans with those 
Who gave me birth and are my kindred. I 
Were criminal indeed could I for culture — 
The polish of the court and elegancies 
Of dress and speech, and to delight in beauty — 
Leave bond my father, and the brand of shame 
Stamp on my mother's forehead. While they suffer 
I must forego the sweet delights of life. 
Till they can share them with me. 
SETI: As the king 

Of Egypt could you not have served them better 
Than as the suffering fellow of their lot? 
MOSES: Listen! I found myself by accident — 
Or shall I say mysterious destiny? — 
Erewhile the witness of a piteous scene. 
Slain by the foul assassin's hand, a youth 
Lay beautiful in death; and on his bier 
Sweet maidens cast fair flowers, and as they sang 
His requiem their kindred stood around 
In slave's apparel. Deeply was my heart 
Affected at the grievous sight; and more 
When I had learned, as speedily I did, 
That that fair boy so basely brought to death 
Was my own brother. 
SETI: Pitiful indeed! 

MOSES: Ay, it was pitiful, and made me hate 
The selfish culture that on manhod preys. 
And rears its ghastly structure on the graves 
Of slaughtered millions. 
SETI: Not thus criminal 

Is all our culture. 
MOSES: All is criminal 

Upon the sacrifice of manhood founded. 
SETI: Then criminal the pomp and pageantry 
And power founded on the force of arms. 
That are today the boast of Egypt. 
MOSES: Father, 

The power that murders manhood is enthroned 
Within the heart of Egypt, wherefore Egypt could 
Not brook my kingship. This or me 'twere forced 
To ostracize; and Egypt has decided. 
SETI: I fear that her decision is portentous. 

But hark! what is that sound that smites upon my ear? 
Methinks that wailing mingled with plaudits do I hear. 
(A herald passes across the stage.) 
HERALD: Great Rameses, the sunlike ruler of the land 
Is dead, and Menephthah now sits upon his throne, 
And sways the sceptre. Under his august command 
May Egypt, as in his illustrious day who's gone. 
Be prosperous and strong! Long live King Menephthah! 

(Exit.) 



42 



SCENE FIFTH.— MOSES, SET! and PENTAUR. 
PENTAUR (rushing in): Flee, Moses, flee; for Menephthah is king, 

And he has sworn that he will take your life. 
MOSES: I fear not the despotic power of Menephthah. 
PENTAUR: Friend, needlessly do not expose yourself. 
MOSES: I will not rashly put myself in danger's^way, 

Though I am conscious that I bear a charmed life. 
SETI: I second Pentaur's counsel. Moses, flee 
While there is time; for Menephthah will brook 
The presence of no rival to his power. 
PENTAUR: Nor will he long withhold the vengeful stroke; 
For not mere dread of a competitor 
Whom he has worsted prompts to seek your life; 
But hatred of a foe who has deprived 
Of one of his sworn friends and useful tools. 
Of whose death at your hand he just had heard, 
When I came hither to apprize in time 
For you to put yourself beyond his power 
To injure. 
MOSES: Yes, in honorable flght I slew 

The man who treacherously struck down my brother, since 
He showed a manly spirit to a tyrant's face. 
PENTAUR: And he you slew was that opprobrious lord 
Who more than any other steeled the will 
Of Menephthah to seek by every art 
Of tortuous expediency the crown. 
SETI: I know the man. A more contemptuous wretch 
There was not — selfish to the very core^ — 
Who goaded Menephtnah on to the throne, 
Not for his love of Menephthah, or thought 
Of Egypt's honor, which he would have dragged 
Down to the dust to advance his own vile ends. 
It had not irked him to have thrust the land 
Into the dreadful abyss of civil war. 
To have climbed the summit of his base ambition; 
Nor did he further Menephthah with words 
Of abject flattery, with loyalty 
That would have stood the test of adverse fortune; 
But as the catspaw to advance his aims; 
And thus he would have used you, had he found 
The weakness that had given him a hold 
To attach himself, like some rank fungus growth 
To your aspiring fortune. 
MOSES: Thank God there was not 

In me disease to breed the parasitic growth 
Of such rank creatures, though for lack thereof 
Unhealthy Egypt has rejected me 
As king. 
SETI : And will, I fear, oust you from life. 

Unless you haste to put yourself by flight 
In safety. 
PENTAUR: Flee from this hostile court, 

Where every moment's tarrying is rash 
Exposure of yourself. Flee; for until 
I know you are beyond the vengeful arm 
Of Egypt's ruler, peace no more can dwell 
In my perturbed breast. 



43 



MOSES: Farewell, my friend, 

Tlie sweet companion of my student years. 
I go far from this court, where fortune may direct 
My steps — I know not whither; but of this be well 
Assured, there is a destiny directs my movements. 
And renders me invulnerable against the assaults 
Of Menephthah. And thee, my father, I must leave, 
Perchance to look no more upon thy much-loved features: 
For age has laid its weight of years upon thy back, 
A^d silvered thy scant hairs, too surely heralding 
Death's advent, to inspire the confidence that time. 
The leaden-footed, may permit me to return 
Ere you have been called elsewhere. But I shall come back, 
(Of this I feel as certain as that I am here) 
To call with sovereign voice to Egypt to do justice; 
Or to hold o'er an unrighteous state the sword of judgment. 
Farewell, good friends; the future calls me — calls to what 
I know not — but with sovereign voice calls me. Farewell. 

(Exit.) 

SET! and PENTAUR: 

Farewell, and may the powers above defend your life! 

(The curtain falls.) 



44 



ACT FOURTH. 

A wild grazing country, with scattered rocks and cactus. In the 
background a wilderness of mountains, with the mighty Sinai in the 
centre, towering above all. 

SCENE FIRST.— A group of Shepherds. Time night. 

FIRST SHEPHERD: How wondrously the stars shine forth tonight I 

Methinks they never seemed to me so bright. 
SECOND SHEPHERD: It is the mood in which you see them, 
brother. 
Perchance they were no brighter to another. 
Than he has seen them many and many a night. 
Till they have faded in the morning light. 
THIRD SHEPHERD: What rapture to behold the starry flocks. 
What time the sun conceals his golden locks. 
Come forth upon the fields of heaven to graze. 
Where the moon shepherdess benignant sways. 
FOURTH SHEPHERD: Oft do I wonder what the lustrous dew 
They sip upon that high ethereal field; 
And what the hidden pasturage doth yield 
The brightness that shines forth each night anew. 
FIFTH SHEPHERD: To me the stars seem like a million eyes 
Of some vast being there, that never dies, 
Though hidden by the garish light of day. 
But holds above the earth eternal sway. 
SIXTH SHEPHERD: And how those eyes look down into the 
heart — 
Into its very depths— and make one start 
Aghast and horrified at that dark brood 
Of fancies that unwelcome there intrude! 
SEVENTH SHEPHERD: In sooth the heart is like a wilderness, 
Where wolves and direr monsters prowl around. 
And sometimes into its most hallowed bound 
Intrude, and cause the spirit deep distress. 
As when the heavens are dark with many a cloud, 

That nurse the wrathful tempests on their breast. 
And from our eyes the stars and moon enshroud. 
So do these monsters cause the soul unrest. 
EIGHTH SHEPHERD: Nor less the sweet vicissitudes of love. 
Ah how the heart is tortured by the dear 
Enchantment of a maiden, who walks here 
Transcendent as the peerless moon above! 
SEVENTH SHEPHERD: So have you told your secret. I have 
known 
For many a day that you were troubled sore 
By something that weighed on you more and more. 
Now, brother, since you have your secret shown, 
Pray tell us, who is that transcendent she. 
Has robbed you of your soul's tranquillity. 
SIXTH SHEPHERD: Do so; for I have noted your pale cheek, 
And lustrous eyes; and how you go apart, 

45 



As if to converse only with your heart, 
Or to the desert air and hills to speak. 
FIFTH SHEPHERD: You grow as strange as Moses, who all fear 
While they respect; sometimes a wretch esteeming, 

Who broods upon the memory ever near 
Of some dark deed; sometimes a prophet deeming. 
FOURTH SHEPHERD: No one has ever learned the mystery 
Of his young life. That he a refugee 
Prom Egypt came amongst us, and has been 

A Shepherd with us, yet of us not one. 
Is all we know of him. What he hath seen, 
Ere he came here we know not, or what done. 
THIRD SHEPHERD: And yet he showed a princely spirit. Still 
Do I remember how he drove away 
The rude, discourteous shepherds, who that day 
Kept Jethro's maiden daughters waiting, till 
Tneir flocks they'd watered, ere they would give place: 
The rude herd shrank abashed from Moses' face. 
EIGHTH SHEPHERD: Ah, Jetnro; that reminds me of my pain. 
And makes me blush for my discourtesy 
To that fair flower of maiden modesty, 
Who treats me now with arrogant disdain. 
SECOND SHEPHERD: Ah, how love turns all topsy-turvy! She 
Who suffered contumely erewhile now offers; 
And who was rude and boisterous now suffers 
The pangs of unrequited love. 
EIGHTH SHEPHERD: Ah me! 

How restless am I and unsatisfied, 

Failing to win from her one gracious smile. 
Who passes me in her disdainful pride. 
Though I am dying for her all the while! 
FIRST SHEPHERD: My brother, much I mourn your grievous 
case. 
But yet, perchance, your suit may not be vain. 
Unless she have upon some other swain 
Fixed her proud heart, she may unveil her face 
To you. If Moses won her sister's hand, 
Miay you not hers, who in no worse case stand? 
EIGHTH SHEPHERD: Ah Moses is a man like to no other. 
With majesty in every lineament. 
He has a form, you must confess, my brother. 

To which no maid could be indifferent. 
And what if he be lonely and austere. 

That uncouth men as some strange being dread. 
He is so gentle that no women fear; 

And never from his presence children fled. 
I have beheld him when his lofty brain 
Methought was in the empyrean straying; 
And little children on his knees were playing, 
As heedless as he were the simplest swain. 
That he could win the heart of doting maiden. 
Is no assurance I could do the same. 
Who have no graces her heart to enflame, 
And am with uncouth speech and manners laden. 
FIRST SHEPHERD: Perhaps as mediator he may serve you, 
If to the decisive point you cannot nerve you. 
'Twere not amiss to seek his help. But hark! 
What means it that the dogs begin to bark? 

46 



It must be that some stranger's coming yonder. 
But what can bring one at this hour I wonder. 

(Pentaur enters haggard and in rude attire.) 

SCENE SECOND.— THE SAME with PENTAUR. 

PENTAUR: Men, if to human pity I can move you, 
Give to the needs of one in sore distress, 
Who will henceforward as a brother love you, 
And call upon the Gods above to bless. 
A SHEPHERD: We never hungry turn away the stranger, 
Who would have food, and refuge craves from danger. 
We were more heartless than the wolves about, 
Would we to their fell mercy turn him out. 
PENTAUR: Thanks, gentle friends. Three days have I been tread- 
ing 
These desert wilds, and have not tasted bread. 
Methought towards me death were swiftly speeding, 
When to this shelter my good fortune led. 
ANOTHER SHEPHERD: 'Tis little we can give you; for our days 
Are simply spent within this desert waste; 
But you are welcome to it, stranger. Raise 
This flagon to your lips, and this food taste. 
PENTAUR (drinks) : Thanks, my good friends. I feel the warm 
blood glowing 
Within in my veins, that was but now scarce flowing. 
("W^ile Pentaur eats one shepherd plays on a pipe, while another 
sings.) 

Pipings, pipings, sweetly sounding 
Over the wild and lonely wold. 
The silly sheep hear from the fold. 
And after the shepherd they go bounding; 
Bounding, bounding, o'er rock and scaur. 
Led onward by the pipe's sweet power. 
He guides them ever* yonder, yonder; 
Out into the desert wild and drear. 
Where the hungry wolves are prowling near; 
But they hear the pipe's sweet notes with wonder, 
And around like clouds although they lower, 
To injure the sheep they have no power. 
The desert witch witxi tones deceiving. 
Astray allures him, and the charm. 
That did of theiil wrath the wolves disarm, 
Forgotten he has; for her sake leaving 
The pathway to follow o'er brake and scaur; 
And his scattered sheep the wolves devour. 
PENTAUR: Your song brings sad reflections to my breast. 
Of what I might have been and have become. 
I were not troubled with my soul's unrest, 
Had I been ever faithjful to my best 
Ideal, whate'er had been my earthly doom. 
A SHEPHERD: We do not understand you, as we know 
Not what reverse has led you to this waste; 
But that you have a higher station graced 
Than ours in all your bearing do you show, 
Though in a garb so wretched do you go. 
PENTAUR: 'Tis well you do not understand. My friends, 
'Tis true that once I graced a loftier state; 

47 



But with tlie praises of a court elate, 
For wealth and station I forsook the ends 
Appointed me to follow, and you see 
A wretch dependent on your charity. 
A SHEPHERD: We fear that you have done some direful deed. 

For which your conscience tortures you; but seek 
No morbid curiosity to feed 
By questioning one who came to us in need, 

And cares not of his former life to speak. 
PENTAUR: I thauK you, friends, and this can say in truth, 
That in your thought you wander far astray. 

I have no crime committed, as men look 

At crime; but that upon an evil day 
The aspirations of my generous youth 

For the world's passing favors I forsook. 
AN OLD SHEPHERD: If that the end of your offending be, 
I see not why you should so. grievously 
Lament your error, as beyond the scope i 

Of pardon, as if you, young man, were worst 

Of criminals. Of all mankind the first 
Are you who's failed to attain his youthful hope? 
PENTAUR: Ah you can never understand the measure 
Of my offending. I was given the treasure 
Of generous thought and clear and apt expression. 

Which should have made life lovelier, and brought 

Me honor. For the favors of a court 
I used them; I condoned the harsh oppression 
Of tyrants, and have got the tyrant's meed. 

When I no further could my manhood lower, 
I had to feel, because I would not lead 

A slave's life longer, the harsh despot's power. 
The honors that I sought have turned to dust 

And ashes at my touch ; and I have lost 
The generous ambition and firm trust 

Of my young manhood, that I cannot hope 
Now to attain what my prophetic soul 

Saw in young manhood; for my spirit tossed 

With stormy passions doth in darkness grope. 
No more perceiving its illustrious goal. 
A SHEPHERD: Behold, the top of Sinai is aflame 

With light! A mystic splendor shines therefrom, 

Illumining as the clear dawn the gloom 
Of midnight, and the stars pale in that flame. 
SECOND SHEPHERD: What means that holy splendor, that afa; 

Shines out into the darkness? 
THIRD SHEPHERD: Lo, how clear 

The features of the mountain pictured are 

In that still radiance! The remote grows near 
In that revealing glory. 

FOURTH SHEPHERD: May it not 

Betoken some high purpose to be bro't 

Erelong to consummation? 
FIFTH SHEPHERD: It o'erpowers 

The spirit, that with reverent awe one lowers 

The head before it. 
SIXTH SHEPHERD: It appears as calm 

48 



As the pale moonlight, yet the dazzled eye 
Cannot look Sviuare upon it v/ithout harm. 
SEVENTH SHEPHERD: Methinks it tells us that the hour is nigh 
Of changes purposed in this lower sphere 
That we inhabit. 
EIGHTH SHEPHERD: Ay, it is the dawn, 

Precurser of the day already near, 
When spirits to the new life will be born. 
PENTAUR: How at that vision peace, I have not known 
For many a month, upon my soul comes down, 
Like gentle dew upon the darkened earth. 
To gleam resplendent at the day's new birth! 
But lo! how from the mountain pallid lightnings break; 
Innumerous ribbons of clear glory; and the earth 
Is shaken; and the ear entranced is filled with music. 
Like the deep bass of ocean, or the onward movement 
Of multitudes, before which opposition dwarfed 
Becomes war with inexorable fate; and lo! 
Athwart the light the shadow of a man is cast, 
Which looms up huge in stature; huge as looms the hero 
Of some romantic fable. Is this a mere figment 
Of my distorting fancy; or do I behold 
Thus in his true proportions the colossal soul. 
Once the associate of my dreams, who gave up all 
For his ideals; so did himself from the ruin save 
That has o'erwhelmed me, who became the tyrant's slave? 

SCENE THIRD.— THE SAME with MOSES. 

MOSES: Can it be Pentaur I behold in slave's attire? 
What adverse fortune hither brings in garb unseemly? 
Whate'er have brought you, my oid friend, I bid you welcome; 
Which I perceive the associates of my humble life 
Have done already. 

PENTAUR: Moses, they have more royally 

Than Pharaoh could have done it. 

MOSES: Pharaoh. You have offended 

In some way Egypt's ruler, that he clothed you so, 
And sent you to the mines of Sinai. 

PENTAUR: It is true. 

So long as I his slave, if not in wish in action,_ 
Would bask within the noxious influence of his power. 
Condoning all his doings, and with specious words 
Of flattery singing his rank praises, gold wa's mine 
And uonor in men's eyes; but when I could no more 
Abase myself to that extent, frowns were my guerdon — 
When, to speak more clearly, I with quickened conscience 
Began to feel the corroding influence in. my soul 
Of those gold chains that held me fettered to the court 
And Pharaoh's praises, these were changed by his command 
For links of iron; and for the rank and perfumed air 
Of Thebes, I was ordained to breathe the stifling heats 
Of Sinai, where half naked wretches who have grown 
Into disfavor labor beneath the driver's lash. 

MOSES: But how fell from your limbs the chains, and left you free 
To make your hard way hither? 

PENTAUR: Ah, the memory 

Of what I have been. One who in my better days, 

49 



When of true heroism I could sing the praise, 

And to the Gods could strike my sacred lyre, had known 

And honored me, was grieved I should be so cast down. 

He gave me liberties, and at the last set free. 

And bade me from the shadow of Egypt's power flee. 

But flee I cannot; for tne chains of Egypt bind 

My spirit, not my limbs. J^reedom I do not flnd, 

Though through the wilderness a wanderer I have been, 

For many a aay, and have no fellow creature seen. 

Unfaith in men, myself, the Gods, my soul enthralls; 

Tbe monstrous power of nature and custom so appals 

My spirit that a pigmy I am in my own eyes; 

I cannot as I used to noble action rise. 

Ungirded for the conflict stem with life I go; 

Restless; dissatisfiea; cursed witn a nameless woe. 

I wander as a spirit vainly seeking rest; 

Yet cannot find, for in my soul I am oppressed. 

MOSES: Pentaur, death is the antidote lOr all our ills. 

PENTAUR: The very thought of death with a strange horror fills. 

MOSES: The guardian of the portal lAat aoth the_ future bar 
Is Death, upon whose brow hope shines the morning star. 

PENTAUR: i:iut ah! the awful darkness and mystery beyond! 

MOSES: By him who nothing ventures nothing is ever found. 

PiuNTAUR: If one could have assurance of life beyond the grave. 

MOSES: Courage asks no assurance; but scorns to live a slave. 

A SHEPHERD: See how the mountain fiames up dreadful to the 
sight! 
From its torn entrails red flames glare upon the night! 

PENTAUR: Moses, a frenzy siezes me; I must away. 
That sight appais me! Hence! I must not, cannot stay. 
(Thunderings are [heard and the shepherds show visible signs of 

terror. Pentaur stands wavering between the inipulse to flight and 

the restraining presence of Moses.) 

MiOSES: Pentaur, you are lost unless you can restrain 
Your restless frenzy. On, although it cause you pain, 
With me to yonder summit; and life's deep mystery 
Will be revealed to you, and this will make you free. 
This is the crisis of your life; if now you take 
The unmanly part henceforth your chains no power can break. 
But if you venture, willing with your life to win 
The guerdon of the future, freed from the bonds within. 
You will be sovereign of the world, controlling fate. 
Though as a slave for recognition long you wait. 

(The thunders increase.) 

PENTAUR: Oh, I am tortured as if furies ruled my soul! 
A passion masters me which I cannot control. 

MOSES: Stay, stay, blind man; or you are lost; forever lost! 
Be true now to yourself and you shall win the goal 
Of your ambition. 

PENTAUR: Never, never!! am lost! 

But ah! the sweet delight; the ecstacy; the thrill 
Of madness; the frenzy of flne feeling that doth fill 
With such unwonted pleasure! Once again is given 
The sweet intoxication, that to the seventh heaven 
Raised me when it was mine to have expression free. 
Nay, do not urge me; do not stay me; let me be 
A wanderer; ay, a slave, so I through every vein 
Can feel the ecstatic thrill of pleasure that is pain! 

50 



I'm played on as a harp. Away! Away! I crave 
No higher good. So I can feel the exquisite thrill 
Of this sweet, syren music, I'm content to fill 
Up all my days with this sweet madness; nature's slave. 
(He rushes out. Lightnings and thunderings break upon Sinai 
and the earth is shaken with a mighty earthquake.) 
A SHEPHERD: Away! What spirit can endure the dreadful sight? 
ANOTHER SHEPHERD: How the wierd lightnings gleam upon 

the startled night! 
A THIRD SHEPHERD: The muttering thunders fill the spirit with 

affright! 
A FOURTH SHEPHERD: Escape from God's wrath and uncon- 
querable might! 

(Shepherds flee, leaving Moses alone.) 

SCENE FOURTH.— MOSES alone. 

(As the scene advances the mountain becomes more vividly aglow 
with light, sending forth streamers of various colors, as in the most 
brilliant display of the aurora borealis. The thunderings are heard 
from time to time, and the voice speaks from behind the scene, ap- 
pearing to come from the heart of the mountain. It may be pre- 
sented as a chant in deep bass.) 

MOSES: Alas, weak man, born to have been a prophet; born 
To feel the thrill of strong, imperious passion, that 
Would wreak itself in fair creation; but too weak 
To endure the temptation, from the chalice of the Gods 
Thou hast drunk poison and art cursed with madness! Life 
As art to him who is its master is a good 
Incalculable; but to the many a stern fate. 
Which holds them in harsn bondage. To be free the soul 
Must first assert its freedom. Till it have stricken off 
Its bonds, to strike the fetters from tne limbs frees not. 
But how shall one win power to free the souls of men, 
That having shaken from their limbs the tyrant's fetters, 
They may be free indeed? This is the question; this 
The problem he must solve who- into liberty 
Would lead his people. Once methought no more was needed 
To free men than to say to them, Be free; but free 
They were not at my mandate. Words will not avail; 
Nor outward change that issues not from change within. 
One must acquire a mightier potency to move 
The heart. With this well might I hope to free my people; 
Without it I am nothing. But whence acquire that power? 

VOICE FROM SINAI: 

Go thou down into Egypt; call Pharaoh to account, 
And to my people say. The God of Abraham, 
The God of Isaac and of Jacob is your God. 

MOSES: To Egypt I? And with naught but the spoken word 
Arouse my people to assert their manhood? God, 
I am not eloquent of speech; I cannot do it. 

THE VOICE: Who is it that enkindles speech, and makes it power, 
That as the sun's strong beams which stir the slumbering seed 

Toi life, the word becomes force in the Inert soul? 

MOSES: Have I not found the effort futile? Must I go 
With only words to attempt the impossible, 

51 



THE VOICE: With God 

Nothing's impossible. 
MOSES: If tnis be not the voice 

Of my ambition or dear hope, but that of God. 
THE VOICE: Put your hand in your bosom. 
MOSES: Alas! 'tis white as snow. 

A leper! 
THE VOICE: Such, if now you hesitate, you will be. 

Put it once more within your bosom. 
MOSES: It is healed. 

But I am such a pigmy to attempt so vast 

An undertaking. 
THE VOICE: The infiinite strength of God is yours. 

MOSES: I must, or see my hop© evaporate in dreams. 

I must go forward to face death if it shall come; 

To be esteemed a fool for God and for my people; 

Or here wear out the little term of life remaining, 

A shepherd, having forfeited a crown to save 

My people, and lacked manhood to attempt the task. 

That were to make life a delusion; were to make 

Egregious folly my renunciation. God, 

With thy strong help I will not, will not thus be found 

Wanting at this the supreme crisis of my life. 

I will go down to Egypt — will, come what come may; 

And will arouse my people from their lethagy. 

Or die in the attempt. 
THE VOICE: You do not go alone: 

For God is with you, and erelong will human helpers 

Stand at your side. Your brother, Aaron, comes even now. 

Who will your efforts second with readiness of speech. 

In other minds he will make pregnant what you teach. 
(The thunderings cease, the mountain assumes its wonted aspect 
and day dawns.) 

SCENE FIFTH.— MOSES and AARON. 

MOSES: Welcome, my brother, whom I see again 

After long years of separation. You 

Have come a ruggea journey, it would seem 

From your appearance. 
AARON: Never such a night 

Did I experience as the last. The heavens 

Were all aflame with a wierd, awful light. 

That from the heart of Sinai issued. Thunders, 

But not the heralds of the rain, I heard; 

And earth was shaken ; and I had to breast 

A storm of elements invisible. 

That made my way a difficult one to traverse 

Against resistance. Phantoms I beheld 

Moreover. Past me rushed, as if pursued 

By furies, or resistless driven before 

The winds, a naked man, with streaming hair. 

And aspect wild, yet smiling and attent. 

As fixed in ecstacy, or as he heard 

Strange music in his madness; and he crooned 

A song, of which, as he rushed past me, scarce 

A dozen words I caught, which were as follows: 

"O the sweet irenzy when the spirit strives 

52 



No more, but in accord with natures lives, 

Whose mighty life doth all his being fill, 

And through his trembling limbs like music thrill!" 

MOSES: Poor fellow, thou wast given tne sensitive soul. 
To throb responsive to the mighty music 
Of life; but not the reason to control 
The imperious impulse, therefore art thou fallen 
Into the hell of madness, where thou goest, 
Isot without rapture doubtless, but a slave, 
Possessing not thy genius but possessed 
As with a demon. Yet I could have saved 
Wouid'st thou have listened at thy fatal hour, 
And with me have gone forwara thougn to pain, 
Foregoing pleasure for the spirit's gain. 
But lell me, Aaron, what the grievous state 
Of our compatriots, who in Goshen wait 
The deliverance God has promisea soon to bring, 
JYom Egypt's selfish lords and tyrant king. 

AARON: Alas! Each day their fetters heavier grow, 
As Egypt's lords more proud and cruel show.' 
They are so driven that life is burdensome. 
And death deliverance from a hateful doom. 
They're routed from their slumber ere the sun 
Across the heavens has his bright course begun; 
And till his splendor fades into the west. 
Though weary brain and limb they cannot rest; 
For over them like sateless vultures lower 
The fiends whO' drive them till they can no more. 
Compelling to the uttermost to feed 
With dollars coined of blood inhuman greed. 

MOSES: My heart within me burns at what you've told. 
O'erthrown must be the tyrant power of gold. 
The sacrifice of manhood must be stayed, 
Though earth to attain it be a ruin made. 
The state is purchased at too dear a price. 
When men must toil like beasts that it may rise. 
But 'tis not needful; the republic grows 
From man's own bosom, and his freedom shows. 
It is not this, but a usurping state 
Of robbers, that on manhood weighs like fate. 
The power of Egypt is a tlyranny 
O'er Israel, from which she must be free. 
But only as the people to new life awake. 
Can they arise and from their limbs the fetters shake. 

AARON: But whence shall come the pov^^er that will arouse 
The people from their lethargy, and give 
The might and courage to stand unappalled 
Before the long-established strength of Egypt, 
And baffle it? 

MOSES: Aaron, there is a Power 

Unfaith must reckon with, that o'er the world 
Is sovereign, as the sun above the clouds. 
God rules, however sensuous men deny; 
And he can hurl the mighty from their seats. 
And raise up them of low degree, to change 
The established order, which eternal seems 
To superficial thinkers; but to them 

53 



Who see more deeply, scarcely more enduring 
Than clouds which show a moment and are gone. 

AARON: Then why has tyranny so long a lease. 
Of power? Why does not God assert His might 
To hurl the tyrants from their thrones, that truth 
And righteousness may be at once established. 

MOSES: God works for manhood, and through man prevails. 
He strikes not off men's fetters till their hearts are free; 
Then they can rise like giants, and themselves shake off 
Their fetters, and there is no power in heaven or earth 
Can bind them. Like the light within the bursting bud, 
His energy long works unseen witnin the heart; 
But soon the energy there generated shows 
Itself in movements, altering the state of things 
Into another order of the world than that 
Which has endured unchanged perhaps for centuries. 

AARON: But will He do it? 

MOSES: Yea, He will and is so doing. 

Me He has bidden go, to bring to consciousness 
His inward workings, doing thus for Israel 
The midwife's service, that tne child be brought to birth — 
The wonder-child of a new culture — in her womb; 
Of God begotten. Israel shall be free; for life 
Is in her; life in germ, which as that in the seed 
Must burst from its sense-swathings, and reveal itself 
In a new organism that shall make the world 
Subservient to its uses. 

AARON: Brother, I am thrilled 

Witu. a new hope, hearing your words which seem prophetic. 

An answering voice within my soul says, This is truth. 

This is the very thought I have been travailing with, 

nut could not bring to birth. Now do I understand 

ine soul's deep yearnings, which not understood disturbed. 

I know why my dissatisfaction; why I writhed 

So in my bondage, till my life grew hateful to me; 

Why I was driven out hither — driven as by scourges hitlher— 

Where 1 have found thee who hast made all clear. Brother, 

It was the soul within me struggling to be free — 

Yea, bursting from its cerements as the human face 

Springs from its animal body in the Sphynx that looks 

vvith stony eyes down on the desert and the Nile. 

Nor was I in my restlessness alone. The same 

Deep mystery is struggling for solution in 

The heart of millions. Let us go to solve it for them. 

You wno have wakened me can waken others; 

And I who've felt the power given you can mediate 

Between you and the people. 

MOSES: Aaron, we will go. 

Your words have taken every trace of hesitancy 
Remaining. God I feel is with me and will do 
What He has promised. The hour of Israel has struck, 
And irresistibly she will go on her way, 
Whatever foes arise her onward march to stay. 

(Curtain falls.) 



54 



ACT FIFTH. 

The stage presents in the centre foreground a rude altar, on which 
is laid the paschal lamb. Chorus of youths, with Aaron as leader on 
one side, and chorus of maidens with Miriam as, leader on the other. 
All are attired in pilgrim's garb, as for a journey. Jochebed in the 
centre. 

SCENE FIRST. 

JOCHEBED: Thank God my aged eyes have lived to see 
The dawning of this day, for which I've prayed 
Incessantly, since I a girl in years 
Wed Amram and gave birth to my first child. 
'My son in God's hands has become the means 
Of leading Israel to the larger life 
Of freedom, that is opening for the seed 
Of Abraham so long enslaved. This night 
Of darkness that has settled o'er tne earth 
Will break our chains; for in the guise of death 
God walks amidst the gloom to smite our foes, 
That with the rising of tomorrow's sun 
We may go forth from Egypt to the land 
Of freedom, promised to our sires of old. 
Wherefore, as we partake of this slain lamb. 
Ana bread unleavened and of bitter herbs. 
Protected from the death that stalks abroad, 
By blood upon the doorposts and the lintels 
Of all the houses placed by God's command, 
Let us express our heartfelt thanks tO' Him, 
Who miracles has wrought in our behalf 
That stagger sense and yet compel belief. 
CHORUS: God of our fathers, who thyself hast shown 

Our God and constant friend in evil days. 

We render Thee our heartfelt thanks; we raise 
Our hands in prayer to Thee, who art alone 
The One before whom mortals should bow down. 

Thou didst create us, and Thou guid'st our ways; 

And for our sakes Thou smitest with amaze 
The tyrants who oppress, and do not own 
Thy righteous sovereignty. Thou over ail 

Creation art supreme. All powers obey 
Thee, save unrighteous men, who laugh to scorn 
Thy mild authority, till Thy hand fall 

In judgment on them. We beneath Thy sway 
Are free, who have the tyrant's fetters worn. 
A YOUTH sings: My soul was like the stormy sea 

When angry winds and waves contend. 
Dark were the heavens over me, 

And wasted I my powers did spend. 
But now no longer God disdaining, 

55 



Enthroned within me He is reigning, 
My passions with strong hand refraining. 
A MAIDEN sings: Though mightier than the mightiest 
Who ravage earth, within the breast 
He reigns with the soft sway of love. 

And ah! what ecstacy of feeling; 

What rapture through the members stealing; 

What balm the spirit's sorrows healing; 
When, as the master's fingers move 
Across the throbbing chords, he thrills 
The spirit, and with music fills! 
A SECOND YOUTH: Days as through a gloomy wood 

I wandered lost and desolate. 
The world was one vast solitude. 

And over me was pitiless fate. 
Grod, like the light on darkness breaking. 
Hath come into that drear world, maKing 
The pathway clear that I was taking; 
And now with vigor I'm advancing 
Towards the goal before me glancing. 
A SECOND MAIDEN: As when the sun in glory rises 

The gladdened earth in beauty lies; 
And every drop of dew surprises 

In some bright gem's resplendent guise; 
So when God on the soul hath broken. 

Clothed it appears with beauty strange; 
In every teardrop is a token 

Of Him who wrought the marvellous change. 
JOCHEBED: My sons and daughters, such a change shall come 

O'er stricken Israel with the coming morn. 

Already pales before the brightening dawn 
Of our clear hope the dark night's sombre gloom. 
Out of the tears that we have shed shall grow 

A rarer beauty to adorn our life; 

As shines amidst its wild turmoil and strife 
Upon the bosom of the cloud the bow. 
MIRIAM: Methinks I see arise another earth 

Upon the vision, glorious to behold. 

This night, the dark hours of her travail told. 
Shall bring a nation to her hour of birth. 
Begotten in sorrow, she shall issue free 

To start on her illustrious career. 

Strength shall be given her, that she shall fear 
No foe that may her strong opponent be. 
AARON: I see her move triumphant on her way. 

And foes go down before her that assail. 

O'er every obstacle she doth prevail, 
That bars her course, or would her progress stay. 
Nor sea nor desert stop her onward march 

Towards the shining goal she would attain. 

God is her gonfalon; the surge in vain 
Confronts; the hot winds of the desert parch. 
WHOLE CHORUS: Full panoplied for war the nation springs 

To being, like the sun from the dark womb 
Of night, and enters on her glorious course. 
Our God, who out of formless chaos brings 

Creation forth, hath formed her in the gloom 
Of bondage, and hath given perennial force 

.56 



To issue on her way triumphant; wings 

Hath given her spirit, that in days to come 
bhe shall soar upwards to the living source 
Of heing, and deriving thence the might 
Of the eternal, here a burning light 
Shall beam her glory forth into the night. 
AARON and MIRIAM: When heart and hand united are 

It is a joy to think and do; 
But when betwixt them tnere is war, 

With pain aoth one his tasks pursue. 
He like the wretched galley-slave 

Is driven to toil without surceas'e. 
The joy in action that men crave 

He has not; nor in rest finds peace. 
CHORUS: God brings our spirits into sweet accord, 

That all our powers act in harmony; 

And action, when there is expression free. 
Not pain, but purest pleasure' doth afford. 
Ah, it is sweet to think and do, 

When thought and action issue from the soul; 

When outward force doth not control 
The spirit free its own ends to pursue! 
JOCHEBED: So shall our spirits be. Tomorrow's sun 
Will bring our freedom. We shall leave this land 
Oi bondage never to return. Elsewhere 
We shall fulfill the purpose of our life; 
Not without trials surely; for our course 
Can never be without them in this world; 
Nor without honor, if we will be true 
To God's high calling. Conquering the foes 
And obstacles against us we shall move 
Forever onward to the shining goal. 
That has been set for our attainment. Free 
We shall be, if to God and our own selves 
Not recreant, with courage we oppose 
Whatever obstacles, whatever foes 
Confront us, trusting God, who doth control 
Our destiny, to bring us to the goal. 
nut lo! one comes who seems not with our zeal 
To be inspired, or our young hope to feel. 

SCENE SECOND— THE SAME with ZIPPORAH. 

ZIPORAH: Moses, a bloody husband do I fear 
Thou'lt be to me. My boys, my pretty boys, 
Gershom and Eliezer, didst thou take 
And circumcise on our way hithet, me 
To hear their cries compelling; and hast brought 
Into this hateful land of slavery, 
To roam no more in freedom the green hills. 
But to behold crushed millions, and perchance 
To grow up to like thralldom. Ah, alack! 

JOCHEBED: Who is it mourns her individual ills, 
When Israel is travailing to the birth 
Of a new life? 

ZIPPORAH: A mother who has seen 

Her children torn from their sweet native hills. 
To grow up in the pestilential air 



Of bondage; who should have breathed forth their life 
In freedom, as some wild flower on the desert 
Expresses fragrance. 
JOCHEBED: Would you have your boys 

Grow up dependents upon niggard nature, 
Forgoing the young hope of Israel 
For the illusory freedom of the waste, 
Lest they should feel the sting of human sorrow? 
C'HORUSI: The day of our deliverance is at hand. 

The dawn smiles on the darkness of our night 

Of sorrows, and they pale before the light, 
As phantoms fleeing from an enchanter's wand. 
Already the dim outlines of the land, 

Erelong to rise resplendent on the sight. 

Of equal freedom and triumphant right, 
Before the longing eyes in vision stand. 
The tyrant quails upon his throne; and they 

Who have afflicted us in trembling wait 
The morrow, that shall consummation bring 
Of judgments fallen upon them. With the day 

Will vanish the young glory of their state. 
Whose requiem with our freedom we will sing. 
ZIPORAH: Will slaves ari'se in judgment and bring down 
The pride of Pharaoh? Direful do I fear 
Will prove the ambitious project. Pharaoh's troops 
Will quell the uprising, and, my husband low, 
I shall behold my boys in vengeance slain. 
Or sold into harsh bondage, who had roamed 
The hills of Midian free, but for the wild 
Emprize drew my rash husband hither. 
JOCHEBED: Free 

They cannot be except as Israel's free. 
The freedom that would its own pleasure flnd 
While others groan in servitude is blind. 
1o roam the desert with nO' settled aim 
Is freedom that is hardly worth the name. 
True freedom is that freedom which we share 
With others who our joys and sorrows share. 
CHORUS: God, Thou art battling for us to make fre^e 

From all that fetters. Thou hast shown Thy might 
In our behalf. On Egypt Thou hast brought 
Dire evils; portents, wherein do we see 

Thy changeless purpose to uphold our right. 
Ana to do judgment. What hast Thou not wrought 
For our saKes, to break down the stubborn will 
Of Pharaoh, and compel him to fulfil 
Thy purpose! Famine, pestilence and blight 
And insect terrors on our side have fought. 
ZIPPORAH: But what have all God's terrors done? The heart 
Of Pharaoh has been hardened. For a time 
Although he have relented, when the scourge 
Has been removed, he has more cruelly 
Entreated Israel — has a heavier yoke 
Of bondage laid upon the people, as, 
Repentant of his weakness, he wouia vent 
His spite against the power nad humbled him 
Upon the helpless. 

S8 



JOCHEBED: Daughter, you are blind 

Througti the excess of love, perceiving not 
That, in your dread lest evil should befall 
The loved one, you would make aishonored. Base 
It were to hold for one's own pleasure him 
Whose absence — aye, whose sacrifice — might win 
A people's freedom; base the liberty 
Of action in some world apart from men 
Your boys might be possessed of, while the boys 
Of other mothers groan in bondage. Free 
He only is without dishonor, who, 
ihe priceless boon of liberty itseli. 
As it were nothing, for the sake of others. 
That they may share it with him, can renounce. 
ZIPPORAH: Alas the grievous day that calls on me 

To sacrifice my husband and my bahes! 
JOCHEBED: Alas the fatal lack of faith in God, 
That paralyzes effort in the hour 
For action! 
ZIPPORAH: Mighty are the odds against us. 

JOCHEBED: God the omnipotent is on our side. 
CHORUS: He is our shield who makes invulnerable 
Against assault. As we go on our way 
Goes down before Him every obstacle. 

As shadows vanish at the approach of day. 
What has most mighty seemed, before His might 

Is nothing. Powers that have for ages stood 
Go out before Him, as the sombre night 

Before the sun advancing as a god 
Up to hi's zenith splendor. Thou hast given, 

God of our father's, earnest of thy zeal 
For our sakes. With the tyrant Thou hast striven 
With what portentous weapons for our weal! 
HALF CHORUS OF YOUTHS: 

God hath brought upon the land 

Snake and lizard, frog and toad. 
Insect pests at His command 

Frenzied men to madness goad. 
Murrain slays the cattle; hail 

And mildew have the harvest blasted. 
Famine and disease assail 
Them who have God's anger tasted. 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: 

But we have suffered not as they 

Who have against our God offended. 
We've found the rigor of His sway 
To be with gentle mercy blended. " : 

Upon the tyrant is expended 
His wrath: His hand doth heavy weigh; 
His bounty hath our course attended, 
As He doth lead tO' freedom's day. 
CHORUS: And now His last stroke is falling, most grievous of all, 
Death stalks through the land, and on Pharaoh in terror doth 

fall. 
In palace and hovel the first born of mortals is slain; 
And the first born of cattle are stricken, who share thus their 

pain. 
Ah Egypt, this night shalt thou rue to the latest of days. 

59 



Tliy glory is fallen, is fallen, and none snail e'er raise. 
Tny glory is fallen; thy manhoou goes down to the tomh; 
O'er the day of thy splendor is falling the night's sombre gloom. 
The future no longer is with thee; but ours is the strife; 
The power that has brought thee to death has called us to lite. 

SCENE THIRD— THE SAME, PENTAUR enters with a garland of 

ivy on nis head, in fantastic attire, and with a harp in his hand. 
PENTAUR (sings) : There lies a pool in the moonlight clear— 
Mononton, Mononton; 
In the pale moonlight as silver clear, 

Mononton, Mononton. 
Beside it beneath the purple skies. 
On a bea of purple violets lies. 
Unveiled in naKed loveliness. 
The awful beauty of a form. 
That like a spell doth his spirit calm, 
Whose eyes that vision may chance to bless. 
The Wolf that prowling the wood by night, 

Mononton, Mononton, 
Comes to that pool in the pale moonlight, 

Mononton, Mononton, 
And catching sight of that lovely form, 
On her perfumed couch by the water calm, 
Forgets the hunger with which he came; 

And the Panther that crouches with purpose fell, 
Feels the might of that potent spell; 
And quenched is his passion's devouring flame. 
Out of the darkness a youth draws near, 

Mononton, Mononton, 
Aild approaching the pool in the moonlight clear, 

Mononton, Mononton, 
He catches a glimpse of that form which lies. 
Unveiled beneath the purple skies. 
In the stars' twinkling radiance; 
He has had a vision and it is gone; 
For the curtain of darkness again is drawn; 
But love was begotten in that one glance. 
JOCHEBED: Who art thou who singest 

Words of little import and much sound; 

And a vision brlngest 
Wherein merely sensuous beauty's found? 
PENTAUR: One to whom 'twas given 

To utter Egypt's life in sounding rhyme; 

Who from her court was driven. 
In lonely wilds to waste life's precious prime. 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: Alas! we grieve for thee, 
A spirit fitted to the noblest strain; 
But like a sweet harp out of tune. 
Thou art condemned to be 
A wanderer, and to waste in accents vain 
Thy passion, baffled ere its noon. 
HALF CHORUS OF YOUTHS: 

We see in thee an image of the pride 
Of Egypt, turned aside 
From its true goal, in madness issuing 
By the blind folly of her king. 

60 



PENTAUR: Egypt indeed is mad, and bitterly 
She must repent her folly. Low 
Is her young manhood. Ah, the anguished cry 

That rises from the land. No foe 
With human weapons could have dealt a blow 

So fatal. Fallen is her pride; 
The flower of her young manhood lies now low 

In death beneath the direful stroke, 
Dealt in the silent watches of the night. 

In palace and in hovel broke 
The dread destroyer with resistless might; 

And Egypt's first born all have died. 
A bitter lamentation; maid and bride, 

Mother and aged father mourn. 
Egypt is desolate for her young manhood gone. 

Isis for her young Horus mourns. 
Old Nilus mourns for his young playfellows, 
Who sported with his waves, and mourning goes 
Through the sad waste to flood the sea with tears, 

For them whose joyous shout he hears 
No longer making jubilant the land. 

Alas! alas! the burning sand 
Flows down upon the fields they used to tread. 

Silent Egypt lies and dead; 
For her young manhood fallen, desolate; 
For her young manhood desolate. 
CHORUS: We mourn the loss, oh Egypt, mourn 
Of thy first born, 
Although for our sakes was the stroke' 
Thy sceptre broke. 
Ah, couldest thou have been to us 

More generous. 
We had not triumphed in thy loss; 

Thy bitter cross 
Would not have been our promised gain. 

God in thy pain 
Had not been forced to open before 
Us freedom's door. 
ZIPPORAH: Alas! sad mother who with bitter tears 
Must mourn the loss of them thy love endears! 
The vision that hath haunted me with woe 
I see fulfilled in Egypt's manhood low. 
Poor stricken Isis who her Horus weeps! 
I mourn who in death's sombre bosom sleeps. 
HALF CHORUS OF YOUTHS: 

So have our brothers fallen, and their blood 
Hath been a seed sown in a fertile soil. 
They have not fallen profitless; their toil 
In God's hand hath accrued to us in good. 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: 

Sombre Death, who dark stoled goeth 
Through the land, and tears soweth, 
AS Night sows dewdrops o'er the earth, 
When shall our strong champion. 
As from the burning east the sun, 
With blinding glory issue forth. 
To battle with thee and o'ercome, 
As he the drear night's sombre gloom? 

6i 



^OCHEBED: Daughters, the hour of God's appearing is at hand. 

The champion He has raised up erelong will stand 

Amonst us, and will lead us to the promised land. 
PENTAUR: He comes, I saw upon the flaming^mount, 

In guise transcending human strength; a form 

Colossal, that the startled sense, o'ercome, 

Shrank from him as a God the spirit quails from. 

Hence! his presence I cannot ahy, 

\Vho, Egypt's fate, in sombre guise has gone 

Througout the land, and stricken her first born. 

His is the hand God hath with terror armed. 

That Egypt hath irreparably harmed. (Goes out.) 

CHORUS: But unto us a savior did our God ordain, 

To lead us to the goal set for us to attain. 

The power to Egypt fatal from our bonds hath freed. 

Who as death triumphs may to nobler manhood lead. 

SCENE FOURTH.— JOCHEBED, ZIPPORAH, AARON, MIRIAM, 
CHORUS and MOSES, the latter clad in a black robe and holding 
in his hand a sceptre and with face resplendent (this effect may be 
produced by a phosphorescent mask). A jewel like a star gleams 
upon his forehead. 

CHORUS: Hail to our champion, resplendent as the sun, 
When bursting from the sombre womb of night he comes 
To make the earth irradiant with his presence! Hail, 
Thou prophet of the almighty God, whom, as to none 
Before thee, He has spoken with; with whom o'ercome 
The might of Pharaoh, doomed inevitably to fail! 
HALF CHORUS OF YOUTHS: 

We welcome thee, our chief, with power to lead 

In battle with assailants that confront; 

But more than to endure the battle's brunt, 
With power to a new sphere of life to lead. 
We welcome thee, whom God hath made indeed 

Our chieftain, in that where thought were not wont 

To dwell thou leadest, opening a font 
Of living waters, whence the soul's deep need 
Is quenched. Into the darkness that before 

Baffles the spirit, thou shalt lead us forth. 
Enlightening our way, until we come 
Into the land ordained for us of yore; 

Where life shall have for us its highest v/ortli; 
Where shall our spirit's break forth into bloom. 
HALF CHORUS OF MAIDENS: 

We welcome thee, with now resplendent face. 

And brow star-jeweled, whO' hast brought our day, 

Of sombre Egypt breaking the harsh sway, 
Beneath which we lay groaning, till abase 
Thou didst for us her gloomy pride of place. 

Ah heavy did thy hand upon her weigh, 

That her young manood in the dust did lay, 
Ere she would listen to our grievous case, 
Permitting us to go forth free. We praise 

Our God, who through thee our deliverance wrought. 
And through the sea and desert is to lead. 
God of our fathers, wondrous are Thy ways! 

62 



How mightily for our sakes hast Thou fought! 
How graciously hast helped us in our need! 

MOSES: 'Twere well you give th© honor all to God; 
For I am nothing but his servant; but 
The channel of His grace. It is His might 
Exalts me; gives power to my spoken word, 
That like the seed implanted in the soil 
Has proved a pregnant germ within your minds 
To issue in new life. It is His hana 
Hath stricken Pharaoh, striving to arouse 
Through portents to a reasonable mood. 
Ere dealing its most direful stroke. In vain; 
The stubborn king but hardened more his heart. 
Refusing to give place to reason, till 
Compelled thereto by pitiless logic he 
Could not refute. At last forced has he been 
To listen; forced to see that tyranny ■* 

Issues in death; but not until dire death 
Had ixie most dear extortion made — had taken 
His first born; and on every Egyptian sire 
Had laid the same hard tax. Now Pharaoh yields. 
Permitting us not merely to go forth; 
But urging, yea, compelling, lest tne curse 
Of our dire presence bring a heavier doom. 

JOCHEBBD: Then has the hour of freedom truly come? 
The sun that now is rising is to shine 
On an enfranchised race? 

MOSES: It is indeed. 

The people who prepared for their departure 
Have eaten the pascal lamb and bitter herbs 
And watched the waning of this fatal night. 
Already have received command to march; 
And Joshua and Caleb muster them. 
By tribes and companies in ordered ranks. 
To start as soon as from the pregnant east 
The young sun rises. 

JOCHEBED: Welcome is the nev/s, 

Which I have prayed for all the weary years, 
Since first my heart began for Israel 
To feel. 

MIRIAM: Nor is it unto me less welcome, 

Who from the earliest days that I remember. 
Have had instilled in me the promises 
To Abraham and to our fathers given. 
That I have thought of nothing, dreamed of nothing. 
But Israel's welfare. 

AARON: Nor to me, who, stirred 

By hatred of the wrongs that we have suffered. 
Have cared not for my life as it was lived 
In bondage, yearning for the day of freedom. 

ZIPORAH: Welcome it is to me; and yet my heart 
Looks to the future with foreboding. 

MOSES: Why, 

My Zipporah, dost thou alone commingle 
A note discordant in the symphony ' 
Of glad rejoicing all but you express? 

ZIPPORAH: I foresee struggles and long wanderings, 
And sore discouragements ere long to come. 

63 



CHORUS: God is our shield, a very present help 

In time of trouble. He who in our hour 

Of deepest need did not forsake, but bent 

To our entreaty, and hath used His power 

In our behalf to overcome our foes. 

Will help when other dangers round us close. 
MOSES: Your words, the expression of a settled faith, 

Are justified by facts. What God has done 

To help us is an earnest He will do 

All that is needful to give victory 

O'er foes that may assail us, and to rise 

Superior to the obstacles confront. 

But hark! A herald comes from Pharaoh. We must give 

His words a welcome. Possibly he has already 

Repented of the leniency extorted from him, 

And aims to battle further v^ith the will of God, 

SCENE FIFTH.— THE SAME, HERALD. 

MOSES: What message from King Menephthah hath brought you 
hither — 
Brought in such haste — whose last command methought was 

given 
To void as speedily as possible the land, 
Where he has reason to regret our presence as 
Of direful import? 

HERALD: Ye have grown too self-important, 

Gloating over Egypt's sorrows, whom the Gods 
Are smiting. 

MOSES: Smitten indeed is Egypt for her sins, 

And by the one God who has power to smite — the God 
Who gave the power to Pharaoh, which he has abused; 
And who has called him to account, — called him in signs 
Portentous, which, if he had heeded, had not fallen 
The last dire stroke has robbed him of his heir and cast 
All Egypt into mourning. 

HERALD: Ah, the bitter stroke! 

But think not Pharaoh will repent or change for this. 
Or aught that may befall. Though when his wound was fresh 
He yielded, blind with sorrow, — to the importunities 
Of those around him yielded, — he repents his weakness; — 
His former doings he does not repent of, and will not; — 
And bids me say to you, and to the people, you 
Mislead, go back to your slave's labor, and desist 
From dreams of freedom ye cannot materialize, 
Unless ye conquer all the strength of his trained armies, 
Which will be down upon ye if ye think to flee. 
Or contumaceously resist his sovereign will. 

MOSES: Then listen to a will more sovereign than Pharaoh's. 
God, who has spoken through me, and who for the last time 
Now speaks through me to Pharaoh, says. If Pharaoh yield not. 
But follow Israel, he follows to his death. 
In the Red Sea, whose waves, obedient to His will 
Whose breath the wind is, parted shall let Israel pass 
Dry shod, shall Pharaoh and his chivalry go down, 
O'erwhelmed by the tumultuous waters turning back 
To occupy their bed forsaken. Of her king 
Her army and her lords shall Egypt in one day 

64 



Be reft. All shall go down beneath the pitiless surge; 

And not a man of all the thousands who pursue 

God-guided Israel shall return to tell the tale 

Of Egypt's last bereavement. Only the wild waves 

That lap the beach shall in their holiow music tell 

The story; and the carcasses thrown on the sands. 

And broken chariots and scattered arms, shall show 

To wondering eyes the last defeat of Egypt's greatness. 

This to Pharaoh is my message. Israel goes 

This day forth from the land of bondage, notwithstanding 

Pharaoh's threats, who follows at his certain peril. 

HERALD: Then Pharaoh bids me say, that he accepts your chal- 
lenge. 
It shall be seen which is the mightier, he or you; 
The Gods of Egypt or the Gods ye worship. Arms 
Shall settle once for all the quarrel. If your slaves 
Unarmed can face triumphantly the arms of Pharaoh, 
Which never yet have known defeat, they may be free: 
If not, the alternative is death or slavery. 

MOSES: He has pronounced his doom. Upon the Red Sea's plain 
The conflict must be fought will prove his boasts how vain. 



SCENE SIXTH.— MOSES. JOCHEBED, ZIPPORAH, AARON, 
MIRIAM, CHORUS. 

CHORUS: Will opposition to our freedom never cease? 
Must strife and turmoil be our portion everywhere. 
Until within the silent grave we shall find peace? 

When our fair hopes to their fulfilnient seemed so near, 
Uprises like a ghastly spectre from the grave 
The power has trodden us down. Far flees the good we crave, 
And peace, sweet peace, like dew comes down upon the breast 
But where the wicked trouble not, the weary rest. 
HALF CHORUS OP MAIDENS: 

Will tyranny ne'er cease its baleful sway? 

Will the strong even to the bitter end 
Oppress the weak? Will their hand heavy weigh 

Upon the defenceless, until they shall spend 
Their last resources in a war with fate? 

Ah, whither shall we look tor freedom; where 
Hope for deliverance, if God do not care. 
And unto us restore our lost estate? 
HALF CHORUS OF YOUTHS: 

At least we may find freedom in the graye, 
Where on one couch tne monarch and the slave 
Lie side by side, the jewelled diadem 
And servile frock no longer parting them. 
The dust of kings shall mingle with the dust 

Of those whom they have treated with disdain. 
The might of arms and wealth wherein they trust 
Against this last opponent will prove vain. 
ZIPPORAH: Death's baleful image I have seen. 

In visions that have troubled sleep. 
Since with my husband I forsooK 
The meadows and the pastures green. 
Where I had led my fatner's sheep 
To the still pool and murmuring brook. 



65 



MIRIAM: Alas! Will sorrows never ending, 
Vs^ith our sweetest rapture biendinc, 
Like the bitter drop of gail 
In tlie wine cup, poison all? 
When hope, like a delicate flower 

Opens in the bosom, ever 
Must the dark storms round it lower, 
That it come to blossom never? 

AARON: When the soul to life awaking. 

Dreaming that its chains are breaking, 
Must it see the heavens clouded, 
Tnat the crimson flush or morning, 
Where the day of freedom's dawning, 
Is obscured; the sun enshrouded? 
JOCHEBED: Is not faith the eye that sees 

Behind the clouds the radiant sun. 
Shining howe'er they conceal? 
Presently ne will reveal 
His splendor, and the day begun 
In storms, will in the azure peace 
Of victory issue. Life to flower, 
Beneath the warm sun's quickening power, 
Will burst in that triumphant hour. 
MOSES: The truest wisdom, mother, have you spoken. 
The day of freedom has in splendor broken. 
Although a moment sombre clouds obscure. 
That we behold not from the ether pure 
The far-irradiant splendor issuing. 
Will bring our spirits to their balmy spring. 
But we shall see that light triumphant is. 
And that before it darkness vanishes. 
The embattled hosts of Pharaoh shall go down, no more 
To trouble us, when wei have passed the waters o'er: 
As we shall pass; for God hath spoken. 
Of whose power we have many a token. 
That He can do what He resolves to do. 
By Him led on, we'll pass the waters through, 

That back o'er Pharaoh s army flowing. 
Shall bury them beneath the rolling surge. 
And the wild waves shall sing their mournful dirge, 

While we beyond them onward going, 
Athwart the desert to the promised land 
Of freedom, march beneath our God's command. 
A MAIDEN sings: 

Alas we fear the embattled power 
Of Pharaoh, that doth o'er us lower. 
Dire vengeance upon us to shower. 
A YOUTH sings: 

Weaponless must we oppose them? 
What the power that o'erthrows them. 
If God's hosts do not enclose them? 
MOSES: Our God is ever striving with the foe 
Of human freedom, to bring low; 
Low even as the dust. 
The power in which men trust 
Will prove a shadow when our God opposes. 
Around us like a fortress He encloses; 

66 

.:LdFC.,- 



And all the might of Pharaoh cannot harm. ' 

Therefore feel no alarm, 

Howe'er portentous seem the tyrant's power. 

'Twill vanish like the clouds that o'er us lower. 

Before the sovereign sun's invincible might; 

And as the earth irradiant in the light, 

Life shall become all beautiful beneath 

The warm light of our God's undying love; 

And like the perfumed zephyr that doth move 

Gently the flowers, we shall the soft air breathe 

Of the new day, 

And bask within the sunshine of God's sway. 

But hark! A m^essenger hath come from those without. 

We'll hear directly how the people are advancing, 
And how God with His arms hath compassed us about; 

Then must we onward to the goal before us glancing. 

SCENE SEVENTH.— THE SAME, with JOSHUA. 

MOSES: Worthy supporter of our cause, how is the marcn 
Proceeding, that our God has ordered and conducts 
Toward the goal He has appointed? Do the people 
To discipline prove pliant, with courageous faith 
Advancing, or does fear chaotic and appalling 
O'erpower them, direful offspring of unfaith and rumor, 
Swolien with the news of Pharoh's armed legions 
In pomp and blatant power coming against them? 

JOSHUA: Prophet, 

Obedient to discipline, in ordered ranks. 
The people were advancing to the Red Sea's shore, 
Full of fresh hope, — to music that spontaneously 
Burst from their hearts advancing, — when untoward Rumor 
That Pharaoh had come forth against them with his hosts 
Of disciplined soldiers, came and smote them with disorder. 
As smites the sea the storm wind — the sea that was unrippled, 
Calm as a slumbering infant in the sunshine lying — 
And rouses its draconian fury. So the rumor 
Of Pharaoh's hosts advancing smote the multitude 
With blind commotion. Order was forgotten, — order 
I'hat is the outward image of calm faith, — and reigned 
Instead dark turbulence, the witness of unreason. 
Then had Pharaoh come he would have conquered — conquered. 
For his dark power had triumphed in the hearts of that 
Blind multitude; but God fought for them in advance. 
There was a sound of music heard; unearthly music. 
That fell like starlight into those dark troubled souls; 
And as when light first dawned on chaos, there arose 
Within them order as of a new-created world: 
Ana as the steed tamed by the master's hand, that host, 
A mob ruled by unreason, grew a disciplined force. 
Ana forward to the sea marched with courageous faith, 
As if grown conscious of unconquerable strength, 
It feared no more important Pharoah than were he 
And his invincible hosts a pigmy multitude. 

CHORUS: Great is our God; He spake and formless chaos heard, 
Ana neaven and eartn came into being at His word. 
He bade that there be light, and light there was; the light 
By day the sun gives forth; the moon and stars by night. 

67 



Upon the earth He made the sea, and made the land; 

And fish to swim the waters, and beasts at His command 

Came into being, and the birds that wing the air. 

And man He made, ana bade he should His own form bear. 

And man ne has commissioned to conquer and subdue 

The earth, creating it for his own ends anew. 

All shall be brought beneath sweet reason's holy sway: 

MOSES: The spirit's night is waning before advancing day. 
Indeed the fetters of the past are snapped in twain. 
The powers that have enthralled us exert their might in vain. 
We shall go on resistless as the incoming tide 
But tell us, wormy Joshua, what more befell, 
That these may know God cares for us, and feel His spell. 

JOSHUA: Then did the people see G-od in the pillar of cloud, 
Tmat first went on before mem, but when danger lureatened. 
Retreated to their rear between them and their foes. 
That striving to assail us, Pharaoh's armed hosts 
Will battle noo with us, but God the invincible, 
With whom to battle is to wear away one's strength 
In a vain war with fate. We are defended thus 
With God by armor, rendering invulnerable 
Against assaults, that without chariots and arms 
More than a match are we for Pharaoh's pigmy might. 

CHORUS: Hail God of armies, who hath made Thy people strong; 
To whom, and whom alone, doth victory belong! 
Thou raisest up a people and Thou castest down: 
The mighty dost Thou humble; the lowly dost Thou crown 
'Tis but through Thy long-suffering that tyrants sway; 
And for their wrongs Thy hand on them doth heavy weigh. 
Out of the dust Thou bringest forth a mightier power, 
To bring them low when they have raged their little hour. 

MOSBS: The hour of Pharaoh's struck, and lie and all his host 
Shall go dovfn into those dark waves that shall o'erwhelm. 
Silence shall come down on his multitudes, as night 
Comes down upon the earth and stills its tumult, — silence; 
But not for us: before us the dark waters open; 
And opens the way beyond them through the desert on; 
On to the promised land with milk and honey flowing, 
Where will be given to manhood its true sphere to act. 

JOSHUA: Even such a way is God preparing for us. Back 
The winds are driving the obedient waters; back 
The multitudinous waves as with the baton driven. 
To void for us the place which they have occupied, 
Dry shod to traverse to the shore beyond, where freedom 
The sentinel is standing, to beckon us come hither, 
And leave behind the land of slavery forever. 

CHORUS: God, the raging 

Billows heed Thy 

Voice assuaging. 

Thou dost lead Thy 

People through them. 

Who pursue them, 

Bent to slaughter. 

Will the water 

Flow back over. 
. , Will the surges 

68 



Sing their dirges, 

Whom they cover. 
MOSES: Away, the time for our departure is at hand. 
God hath our pathway opened to the promised land. 
We have but to go forward and our chains will fall. 
The future beckons, where no one can e'er enthrall. 
So we be free in spirit there is no power in earth 
Or heaven that can withhold from us what is our right. 
On to the land where weakness be not oppressed by might. 
And where shall be no ruler but he of highest worth! 




69 



'^^V 11 1902 



iinnARY OF CONGRESS 

018 602 334 1 • 






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